Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) is one of the leading summer open air heavy metal music festivals. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. With 80,000 festival visitors, and including personnel a total of roughly 82,500 attendees in 2010, it attracts all kinds of metal music fans, such as fans of black metal, death metal, power metal, thrash metal, gothic metal, folk metal, and even metalcore and hard rock from around the world.

The festival was first held in 1990 as a small event for local German bands. By 1998 the event had become the major festival on the European metal calendar and has included over 70 bands from all over Europe, North America and Australia. W:O:A is usually held at the beginning of August and lasts three days, during which the festival-goers camp on several large camping grounds surrounding the actual festival area.
The 70 or more bands perform across four separate stages over the course of the event.

One more year, Wacken welcomes people from all around the world to share in community the metal religion. No other place can make you feel more connected to the spirit of metal, to the rock family, to the holy land!! (you will even drown in holy mud if it rains, a bloody wonderful experience)

This year we get best schedules, more stages, a lot of rock legends and over-the-top acts, and more Mambo Kurt than ever!!

We can announce 4 new bands and new "theme day" for the upcoming W:O:A!

Gojira will return to Wacken!
The French band Gojira must undoubtedly be on every list of these days most exciting metal bands. With each new album, they easily manage to break down the boundaries of the genres. Without ever sounding arbitrary and interchangeable or sacrificing their own trademarks!

Whether you call it Technical Death Metal, Progressive Death Metal, Progressive Groove or simply Metal, one thing is clear for sure: Gojira always deliver high class!

Tremonti will join Wacken for the very first time! Head of the band is Mark Tremonti, who is already well known as guitarist of Creed and co-founder of Alter Bridge. With Tremonti, he can now follow his own musical visions. To do this proper, he isn't only playing the guitar but also took over the lead vocals.

Destruction will smash the Wacken Open Air 2018 too! The German thrash metal pioneers haven't played at the holy land since 2007, but now it is finally time for them to return!

Last but not least: Rezet Rezet are another new addition for our lineup. Semi-official, the band has already played Wacken twice, namely in the old Metal Market tent, which had a separate program.

They will be part of the new Wasted Wednesday: The Wasteland Stage, which has been repeatedly upgraded in recent years, will be conquered by a terrific, old-school thrash and speed metal lineup. Get rid of your hangover in no time and bang your head to some solid metal!

Wacken Open Air 2018 is already casting huge shadows and today we can announce the next fantastic acts for next year. The bands speak for themselves, so we do not want to lose many words in advance.

Let's begin with the one and only JUDAS PRIEST! Rob Halford and his band are soon celebrating their 30th anniversary with a new album in 2018 and will once again write live history at Wacken!
The next Band is the black metal legend DIMMU BORGIR, which will play their only German festival show at Wacken 2018! Mötley Crüe may be history but frontman VINCE NEIL will come to Wacken to play a best-of show of the CrÜe at the upcoming festival!
Another Finnish cult band arrives with Children of Bodom which will also play their only German festival show in 2018! Last but not least we want to complete this amazing package with AMARANTHE, one of Swedens most successful metal bands!

it's that time again: W:O:A 2017 is sold out! All 75.000 3-DAY-ALL-IN-TICKETS are sold.

THANX FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

After the enormous building operations (including the new beer pipeline) are more or less finished we have also reached the finishing line of the pre-sale. Despite all adverse circumstances and weather conditions of the last three years you have shown us once again that you are the best and most loyal fans in the world. Once again thanks for that!

There will be no breaks in the days and weeks to come: All further info, area maps, opening hours, the festival alphabet and so on are more or less finished and are waiting for a release.

The 28th edition of Wacken Open Air is coming and we are once again doing our best prepare the loudest & best party of the year for you – so stay tuned!

We are preparing some small and some big changes for the upcoming Wacken Open Air! The construction work from last autumn were only the first step of our investments and improvements.

Today's news is about the big stages and the sound in our infield. More news will follow soon!

The stage names:
Last year we asked you to submit suggestions to rename the Party Stage. More than 1000 suggestions reached us and they covered a huge range of ideas. Thank you for your ideas and your support!

From 12th August Until the 20th of august the Wacken Music Camp is held in the production area of the famous Wacken Open Airs. Experienced young musicians, enthusiastic beginners and above all fans of heavy metal at the age of 13-17 years are invited to practice under the guidance of experienced and professional heavy metal and rock greats and to develop their own sounds. There is enough inspiration on the premises so that the participating musicians can develop and rehearse their own songs with the help of professional producers and coaches. At the end of the week, the results will be presented at a large, public final concert. Still a few places are free, so be fast and get a great holiday week for your kids!
In addition, the Wacken Music Camp collects donations to acquire new instruments for practicing.

A very unique show: Accept will rock the Night To Remember at Wacken Open Air!

We have prepared something special for today’s Easter Sunday: Accept will play their biggest show so far at our festival in August!

The concert is part of the upcoming Night To Remember and a very special happening for the band says Wolf Hoffmann of Accept:
"It has always impressed us how seriously the bands take this evening and with how much love artists and organizers always surprise in their diversity. This is a beautiful custom, which shows and documents the level of the international rock community like no other. We also want to show something that Accept has never ever shown before and we hope we are able to offer something special to the fans.”

Accept want to create one huge show consisting of three different parts to reflect their entire creativity! But what is going to happen exactly?

The first act: Accept will present some songs from their new album The Rise Of Chaos exclusively at Wacken! One day after the live premier in Wacken, the album will be released all over the world – on August 4th. It’s the fourth Accept album to be released by Nuclear Blast and it is going continue the feats from its three predecessors Blood Of The Nations, Stalingrad and Blind Rage.

This first part of the Wacken show will be more than just the live premier, but a classical Accept Metal show with both old and new hits!

The second part is another premier! Wolf Hoffmann and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra will perform songs from Wolf’s solo album Headbangers Symphony together. The album was already released in 2016, but this will be the live premier! The album adapts some of the greatest works of the classical music, like Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 for the metal world.

The closing third part combines everything for the grand finale: Accept will rock the stage together with the big Orchestra, framed by a complex multimedia show. Needless to say, that this is another huge premier for the band.

Tickets for the upcoming Festival are as always available at Metaltix.com

Wacken news Written 2017-04-06 00:28:54

HEAVY EASTER 2017! - THE EASTER STORE SPECIAL SALE IN WACKEN

As every year there will be a special Easter Sale in Wacken. The sale will take place at the Wacken Store at the Hauptstraße 82 as well as in the Outlet Store at the Hauptstraße 29.

The sale takes place for he 6th time and offers the brand new W:O:A collection as well as lots of rare goodies and remaining stock of items for a special discount

So if there is any possibility that you might accidentally travel throughout the north of Germany on that weekend than you should make a quick stop at Wacken.

If you haven't got enough of Metal after the sale than you can stay for the Easter Rock Member Meeting which is held by he Full:Metal:Army.

Ross "The Boss" Friedmann will hit Wacken with one of his celebrated Manowar shows! The co-founder of the world's loudest band recorded six albums with the true metal heroes until he decided to focus on other projects.

W:O:A Warm Up Parties 2017

The time from one W:O:A until the next one can always be very exhausting... or boring.

Starting on the 1st of December, there will be a lot of action going on at Wacken.com, Metaltix.com and in the whole W:O:A network!

We will release new bands for the Wacken Open Air every day until the 24th of December. More than 60 bands are waiting for you in our huge X-mas calendar!

Another part of the calendar is again our big raffle with more than 120 prizes! You can win for example a package of merchandise or a luxury cruise trip. And every day we will draw new winners!

And that's not all! Every day we will reduce one W:O:A article for 24 hours with a 24% discount at Metaltix.com. If you're looking for a gift for friends and family, you should check it out!

Last but not least: There will be some special content at WackenTV during the christmas time to sweeten the end of the year a little.

So don't forget to highlight the 1st of December in your calendar!

Wacken news Written 2016-11-05 10:30:41

Huge constructional measure in Wacken!

Dear Metalheads,
we promised you after W:O:A 2016, that we will improve the whole area for the future. The problems of the last two years have shown us that we need to make huge investments for constructional measures, there is no other way.

Construction phase 1 – Digging it!

The first construction phase was the reworking of the whole area with heavy machines – the area looked like a lunar landscape at this time! Several heavy machines like diggers, tractors and bulldozers were working to resolve sinks and hills.

Due to the ongoing burdens in the last years, the area was deformed at many places and there was no chance for a long-lasting greensward. The water couldn't run out and we even had some small lakes after heavy rainfalls. The first phase of our measures took care of this problem.

Check out the first video podcast here!
________________________________________

Construction phase 2 – The new drainage system:

After this planning of the area, we started the second phase that improves and extends the already existing drainage system and its concept.

After the bulldozing of the area, we started the second phase that improves and extends the already existing drainage system and its concept

We installed a huge system of subsurface water caches that can take the surface water from the whole area. Inside the system, the water can seep away fast and effectively.

If there is too much water for this system, we installed a second water storage as back up; the water can be forwarded to this area. And if there is too much water for THIS – then we can forward it to the North Sea – Baltic Seal canal.

The whole system can be checked and maintained through several shafts, to ensure functionality for a long lifetime.

Watch the second podcast here!
________________________________________

Construction phase 3: Sowing and raising:

The experiences have shown us, that normal grass can’t handle the burden of a festival day. Because of this, we are using a special and robust sort of grass since a few years.

For 2017 we take another step forward: Together with the regular grass, we seed mustard-grass and clover.

The far and deep reaching roots of the new mixture will help to aerate the grounds and break soil compactions. They are also working as a natural drainage, because the water can sink through the roots. It’s a perfect addition to our concept!

On the other hand, we will stop to plant some areas of the event area. These special places have been raised with crushed stones to handle the heavy burdens.

We did this at areas like the Party Stage entrance, the areal with the Jägermeister deer, the “Schädelbar” area between Party Stage and True Stage and some other spots like the toilets on the opposite or the crossover between Wacken Center and the Wackinger area.

More measures, big and small, will follow later, starting in spring 2017!

For example, we will install a beer pipeline in the event area! Until now, we had to send in some trucks with full barrels every night to change them with the empty barrels. And every heavy truck is a problem for the area.

You will be able to experience the new infrastructure at the next W:O:A already.

Tickets for the Wacken Open Air 2017 are exclusively available at Metaltix!

Wacken Open Air News Written 2016-09-27 11:54:24

Traditionally new bands for the Wacken Open Air 2017 will be announced during the Hamburg Metal Dayz in Hamburg. Among other bands
Apocalyptica, Emperor, Turbonegro und Napalm Death will be on the road
to Wacken next year.
Wacken, 2016, September 23rd
– It has been is just about 48 days ago but it seems like ages. For all those who want to reduce the waiting time to the 28th Wacken Open Air there is the very latest trailer with previously unpublished images to enjoy. In addition, new sounds from the W: O: A® headquarters playing a very special tune: the line-up for 2017 is growing!
The Finnish Cello rockers of Apocalyptica will go back to their roots: In Wacken they are doing a show called Apocalyptica-Plays Metallica by four Cellos”. Although the band gained a drummer and a singer since their debut album from 1996, the old
Metallica covers still have their own kind of magic. The Norwegian black metal veterans Emperor will celebrate their acclaimed studio album "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" in Wacken 20 years after its first release – a definitive rarity since the show at Wacken will be Emperor’s only show in Germany in 2017!
Also Turbonegro will be hitting the stage at the Wacken Open Air 2017 – ten years after their first and last show at the W:O:A®, the Norwegians are coming back to the Holy Ground - with news songs and some new band members. Even after 30
years the Grindcore pioneers of Napalm Death are rising the flag against social and political grievances – 75,000 metalheads can enjoy their energetic live show next
Wacken . A band, who co-founded the Progressive Metal, comes back as well to the Holy Wacken Land in 2017: Fates Warning.

This new batch of bands is supplemented by Soilwork, Orange Goblin, ASP, Grand Magus, Aura Noir and Rage. The newly confirmed bands are in good company at
the Wacken Open Air 2017. In August Amon Amarth, Avantasia, Kreator, Mayhem, Saltatio Mortis, Paradise Lost, Heaven Shall Burn, Lacuna Coil, Powerwolf, Candlemass, Sonata Arctica and Hämatom already has been released.
In addition to the eleven bands, there is one more good news: metalheads who don’t want to miss these metallic treats can still secure tickets exclusively atwww.metaltix.com and +49 4827-999 666 66. The regular 3-day-ticket costs 220 € incl. fees (plus shipping + system fee).

Wacken Open Air News Written 2016-07-12 09:48:27

STARCOOKING AT THE WACKEN FOUNDATION CAMP

The registration period for our Starcooking sessions starts. From Wednesday, 06th July 2015 at 3 pm to Wednesday, 13th June at 3 pm you can bid for a participation place for the cooking course with Tim from Endstille, Kobi from Orphaned Land or Knobel from 5th Avenue. All revenues go to the Wacken Foundation.

In order to participate in the Star-Cooking course it is necessary, that you own a valid W:O:A 2016 ticket.

Tim from Endstille will prepare a vegetarian dish with five of you on Friday, 05th August at 1 pm.

Kobi from Orphaned Land will prepare oriental dish with five of you on Friday, 05th August at 4 pm.

And Knobel from 5th Avenue planned to cook the bands favorite dish during their session on Saturday 06th August at 5pm.

For joining the cooking course you have to do the following:
• Send an e-mail in the time period above with your bid (in €), your name and the 5-digit number of your W:O:A ticket to starcooking@wacken.com.
• Every 48 hours (Friday, Sunday, Tuesday) always 10am, we will inform those people who are not anymore under the top 5 highest bidder. We accept new bids until the end of the auction on Wednesday 6pm.
• The five highest bidders will receive a confirmation mail with the bank details from the Wacken Foundation. You get one week to transfer the money. If there is no receipt of money within one week, the next highest bidder gets the chance.

Already a bit hungry, and would like to come your favorite artist a bit closer? Try your luck!

Wacken Open Air News Written 2016-07-12 09:45:27

W:O:ART TENT 2016

This year you will find the W:O:Art–Tent in the Wacken Foundation Camp which you can find on (# Pos. 20). The camp is located directly next the the Beergardenstage and the Metal Market. Here you see a short list of all the artists and actions we offer in the W:O:Art – Tent.

Berufsinitiative Triebwerk - Offers to be totally crative with their action painting project.

Musikschulen Schleswig-Holstein - Invites for a double bass contest „Feet of Hell“, people can show their talent on the drums and can get into a little competition as well.

Siebdruck - The band Trailer Park Sex got supported by the Wacken Foundation and presents a way of creating own merchandise with silk-screening.
Artists

Kim Schmidt - Exhibits his famous Wacken Open Air cartoons.

Jens Rusch - Exhibits and sells his new calendar for 2017 with the famous breathtaking „Wasteland-Warriors.

Thomas Ewerhard - The Metal-Art artist exhibits some of his work in the art tent. He became famous through incredible CD-Cover and merchandise for famous bands.

We really look forward to see you in the Wacken Foundation Camp. We guarantee that there will be something for everyone, for people who love art, like practical actions, social engaged visitors or even if you just a bit hungry. Come around and find us on Postion #20 in the Holy Wacken Land map.

Wacken Open Air News Written 2016-07-11 13:01:10

SAVE YOUR HOLY LAND!

This year we are caring about the reduction of the pollution during the Wacken Open Air again. According to the motto “Metal 4 Nature” different projects will be implemented to protect the nature.

In your Full:Metal:Bag there is a trash bag and our “Trash-Mobiles” (vehicles) will patrol on the campsite to gather your trash bags and they will also supply you with new ones. Should there be no “Trash-Mobile” around, you can bring your trash bags to the trash stations at the shower camps S1-S5.

The voluntary workers of the Wacken Foundation will drive around on the campsite with cargo trikes. Their goal is to collect your deposit. Your PET-bottles and cans are what they are looking for. All this is for good causes, since 100 per cent of the income will go into the Wacken Foundation.

In order to minimize injury risk, glass bottles are forbidden on the whole festival site! But there is a service being offered where you can decant your glass bottle content into a fancy PET-bottle. This can be done at the supermarkets on the visitor road.

An oversized beer can again be visited in the Wacken Foundation Camp (Pos. # 20). It is the sleeping can – a prototype which soon could be your sleeping booth on festivals. The can has a bedroom and a lounge and could be equipped with solar battery panels, which provides you with light and power, so you can be fully independent from the power supply.

So do your little part to help us protecting the environment!

Wacken Open Air News Written 2016-07-11 13:00:00

BECK'S PRE-ORDER AT THE W:O:A CAMPING GROUNDS!

Don't want to drink warm beer and carry loads of beverages around the camping grounds?

No problem! With the Beck's Pre-Order you have the possibility to pre-order your beer online. One can costs 2€ (A tray has 24 cans) inclusive can deposit. Just pickup your cold beer at one of the Pre-Order counters.

At W:O:A the pre-order counters are the supermarkets at the shower camps. (You find them on the maps). Just write an e-mail including your name and the number of trays to preoder@wacken.com and the beer will be delivered to one of the shower camps on the campgrounds. The order is mandatory!

But that's not all:
This year the so called Beck's Cool Caddy will patrol the camp grounds and supply you with cold beer. This mobile beer delivery vehicle will always be there when the last beer is empty. So keep an eye open for the rolling Beck's transporter!

Wacken Open Air News Written 2016-07-11 12:59:13

BECK'S PRE-ORDER AT THE W:O:A CAMPING GROUNDS!

Don't want to drink warm beer and carry loads of beverages around the camping grounds?

No problem! With the Beck's Pre-Order you have the possibility to pre-order your beer online. One can costs 2€ (A tray has 24 cans) inclusive can deposit. Just pickup your cold beer at one of the Pre-Order counters.

At W:O:A the pre-order counters are the supermarkets at the shower camps. (You find them on the maps). Just write an e-mail including your name and the number of trays to preoder@wacken.com and the beer will be delivered to one of the shower camps on the campgrounds. The order is mandatory!

But that's not all:
This year the so called Beck's Cool Caddy will patrol the camp grounds and supply you with cold beer. This mobile beer delivery vehicle will always be there when the last beer is empty. So keep an eye open for the rolling Beck's transporter!

Wacken Open Air News Written 2016-07-06 23:45:41

TWO ADDITIONS FOR THE LINE-UP

Today we can present you an really exotic addition for the Wasteland stage line-up. Overthrust from Ghenzi in Botswana were founded in 2008. They play old school death metal and belong to a very small minority of metal bands in this region of the world. If you like bands like Deicide, Morbid Angel, Immolation and so on than you should check them out!

The band will travel Europe in August for the first time ever and will also play at the international summer festival "In/Audible Sounds II“ at the Kampnagel in Hamburg.

In their home country the band is also organizing an annual festival called »Overthrust Winter Mania Fest« - One of the most important events in the small African metal scene which is also a charity event which (amongst other things) collects money for the locals AIDS aid.

The next act we want to introduce is Berlin Allstarz Live Karaoke. They are doing the karaoke shows at Wacken’s Bullhead City tent for the fourth time in a row now. You can find the complete song list on their homepage www.live-karaoke.com

Wacken Open Air News Written 2016-06-30 09:02:34

"Live at Wacken 2015 - 26 Years Louder Than Hell" - Release on August 5th, 2016

On August 5th, 2016 the new W:O:A Live DVD/BluRay will see the light of the day!

Just in time for this year’s festival

Live At Wacken 2015 – 26 Years Louder Than Hell

will be released and everyone can reminisce and indulge oneself with this fabulous line up. So many highlights and the heart of every fans is gonna beat faster. Where else do you get such load of springing charge and concentrated passion of the coolest heavy and rock bands? And with this release you are not only enjoying the CD you can also watch the bands again on the double DVD. Just to drop some names: Judas Priest, In Flames, Annihilator, Danko Jones, Uli Jon Roth, Europe, Cradle Of Filth, and newcomers like Beyond The Black and many, many more.
On 8 stages, more than 120 bands were performing. Gigantic!

This DVD can only cover an excerpt of all the performances , otherwise it would go far beyond the scope but be sure that everything you want is on there!

This year we want you provide with some good food once again. You have the chance to learn some barbecue skills together with Daniel, Vivien Fenske and their crew of the cooking school Pinneberg that will leave your friends at your campground speechless.

The seminar is called “Fire and Flame”.

All the needed equipment and tools as well as the ingredients for the cooking will be sponsored and provided by “Kate Fenske”. There will be two seminars a day from the 3rd of august to the 6th of August 2016. The courses start at 11 am and 2 pm.

Vegetarians can also join, we have also some vegetarian barbecue recipes to try out. And as always there will be a lot of beer.

The participation fee will be 20€ and will go directly toward the Wacken Foundation to support young metal bands.

Be fast and get yourself one of the popular seminar slots if you want our cooks Lars Ginsberg (Agentur für Genuss) and Stefan Boriss (formerly Running Wild) to teach you the right way of barbecuing. As in every year there are only 5 paricipants per seminar allowed.

It was worth to wait for a while. One year ago, the company Gibson sponsored this beautiful guitar for the Wacken Foundation.

Now, all Band members of Trivium signed the front of the guitar in Munster during their current tour 2016, now the guitar including the case and a CD are going up for auction on ebay.de.
All the collected money will go straight towards the Wacken Foundation which is supporting and sponsoring young rock and metal bands all over the world.

Find more information about the guitar here

The auction starts today at 9 pm HERE

We are looking forward to a lot of bids and we hope you have fun with this auction.

It was worth to wait for a while. One year ago, the company Gibson sponsored this beautiful guitar for the Wacken Foundation.

Now, all Band members of Trivium signed the front of the guitar in Munster during their current tour 2016, now the guitar including the case and a CD are going up for auction on ebay.de.
All the collected money will go straight towards the Wacken Foundation which is supporting and sponsoring young rock and metal bands all over the world.

Find more information about the guitar here

The auction starts today at 9 pm HERE

We are looking forward to a lot of bids and we hope you have fun with this auction.

Yours
Wacken Foundation

Wacken news Written 2016-06-26 06:42:02

Holy Wacken Land & Campingsite Maps 2016

Certainly all of you were curious about all the new festival area and infrastructure changes. With the release of the current Holy Wacken Land & Camping Site Maps we can now answer your questions!

To offer our handicapped festival visitors the best possible festival experience we once again join forces with the ThiesMediCenter GmbH which also gets support by the company Sunrise Medical.

Together we offer the following services:
• Repair service for different items like flat tires on your wheelchair – most of these services are for free excerpt bigger material costs (upon consultation)
• Possibility to supply you with several facilities like wheelchairs
• Free charge station for electronic wheelchairs and engines.
• Free storage of compulsory refrigeration Meds like Insulin
• Free physiotherapy service – taping for a small fee

Therefore we will once again build up a stand on Campground A at the so called Wheels of Steel Area.

The opening hours of the stand are as follows:
Wednesday August 3rd to Saturday August 6th 2016 –> 10am to 10pm
An emergency contact person which is available offtime can be reached under the following number: +49 163-7889380.

In case of any questions like the pre-reservation of special loanable equipment, oxygen supply or other facilities feel free to write an e-mail to m.reimer@thiesmedicenter.de.

Certainly all of you were curious about all the new festival area and infrastructure changes. With the release of the current Holy Wacken Land & Camping Site Maps we can now answer your questions!

According to your feedback, which we are very thankful for, we made further changes on festival area and campgrounds.

Let’s begin with the shower camps: The new shower camp S6 on campground O is our newest addition which benefits camping visitors on the campgrounds O, S, U and V. The walking distance from those campgrounds to reach showers, flushed toilets, supermarkets and breakfast tents is now essentially shorter. With this measure we have increased the sanitary support on the campgrounds once more.

Further we have relocated the beer garden. As you can see at the Holy Wacken Land map the beergarden is now situated on the left of the metal market.It offers more space as well as an extended range of food and beverages offers.

In the last year we got lots of feedback including the demand to take care of a better line of sight on W.E.T Stage & Headbangers Stage. Your wish shall be granted! We have relocated the wrestling ring into a all new location.
The wrestling ring can now be found at the brand new Wrestling Slam Tent which will also be home to the poetry slam battles. That means more space for the audience, no visibility restrictions and non stop metal at the Bullhead City Circus. Enjoy!

The position of the metal market was also adjusted due to the changes at the beergarden. It is now situated at the middle of the Wacken Center. Further the so called Metal Market event tent is gone.

Both main entrances (as you can see at the Holy Wacken Land plan marked with an red A & B) were adjusted to the same size so they can handle the same amount of visitors. That means you can expect shorter waiting times at the security checks.

Last but not least we want to introduce you to the Rainbowbar. This bar is located besides the beergarden and was established in memory of Lemmy Kilmister and his favorite bar in LA. There you can drink and enjoy (We’ll guess you already expect it) Whisky and Cola.

Born to lose, live to win - A Farewell to Lemmy
This year's Night to Remember is going to end with an homage to the passed away Lemmy Kilmister. Motörhead wanted to rock Wacken again, but it sadly came differently.

Dio Disciples feat. a very special guest
At the end of the festival, we will remember another legend. The Dio Disciples, friends and co-musicians of Ronnie James Dio, will share the stage with very special guest.

At the same time we also have to announce the cancellation of Lamb of God. The band is going to record a new album and called off the scheduled shows.

FESTIVAL ALPHABET 2016 IS ONLINE!
The reworked Festival Alphabet for W:O:A 2016 is online. Where do I get, what I'm looking for? How many stages are there? Where do I have to go, if I encounter a problem at the festival? http://www.wacken.com/en/festival-info/festival-abc/

Wacken Open Air news Written 2016-05-25 21:55:44

NEW BANDS – PROGRAM NEARLY COMPLETE!

Today’s wave of bands fills nearly all slots of this year’s Wacken Open Air! The colorful package adds bands from several genres and the framework programme.

Phil Campbell All Starr Band
Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell will join us with his All Starr Project! The band was found in 2013 and consists of Phil and his three sons Todd, Dane and Tyler. They play both Motörhead classics, covers and self-written songs.

More at Billing/Bands.

The Raven Age
The young British band The Raven Age is dedicated to modern Metal sounds, but they use to keep more melodic than other bands with this sound. In 2014, they band released a self-titled EP and afterwards they started to tour with Iron Maiden.

More at Billing/Bands.

Beyond The Black
Up and coming: The symphonic metal band Beyond The Black is going to present its new album "Lost in Forever" in Wacken. The band played shows with the Scorpions recently and soon they will join KoRn for two shows. But they have also scheduled another headliner tour – they story continues.

More at Billing/Bands.

Barb Wire Dolls
From Greece with Punk: The grunge/punk newcomer band with female power at the microphone is smashing stages world-wide at the moment. We’re looking forward to see it live!

More at Billing/Bands.

Steak Number Eight
Some doom, some sludge and a little bit of post: Steak Number Eight are using lots of ingredients to create an awesome sound. The young band is going to visit us as part of their huge festival tour this summer.

More at Billing/Bands.

Buffalo Summer
Pleasant Southern Rock is the trademark of Buffalo Summer. The band just released its new studio album Second Sun and they will present it at Wacken of course!

More at Billing/Bands.

Budderside
These four friends are traveling all the way from LA to Wacken, with some modern Hard Rock in their luggage. The band is going to release its debut album this year but they already have a lot of experience with other projects.

More at Billing/Bands.

The stage in the Beergarden and the Wackinger Village get some new names too! Get ready for Knasterbart, Wirrwahr, The O'Reillys and the Paddy Hats, Asrock, Honky and the vikings of Forgotten North.

And of course there can’t be a party in Wacken without Skyline, Blaas of Glory, the W:O:A Firefighters, Mambo Kurt and our community band Victims of Madness!

Wacken Open Air news Written 2016-05-19 18:08:15

W:O:A SHUTTLE BUS SCHEDULE 2016

Year after year several shuttle busses are picking up W:O:A visitors to drive them from the train station in Itzehoe to the festival area and back.

Because of that we are providing shuttle bus schedules to all our guests who plan to travel to Wacken Open Air via train.

The new shuttle bus schedule gives you the complete arrival and departure times of 2015 from Itzehoe to Wacken and back.

The reworked Festival Alphabet for W:O:A 2016 is online. Where do I get, what I'm looking for? How many stages are there? Where do I have to go, if I encounter a problem at the festival? Here are the answers!

If you take a close look, you will notice one or more innovations like the new shower camp S6 and other things - based on your feedback, we optimized the area, the setup and the flow of the festival once more.

We will explain the innovations in detail in a separate info post before the festival starts.

This year the location of the Carderobe Services locker trucks will be directly in front of the main entrance leading from the campgrounds to the Wacken Plaza.

You can do pre-reservations via the Carderobe homepage.
As in the last year the service will be available until Sunday 12.00 o´clock noon and you are also able to do the reservation for the whole duration of the festival.

Book your personal locker online at the Carderobe Homepage.

Carderobe Service provides you with safe deposit boxes in 3 different version:

- Opening Hours:
Wednesday, 03rd of August 2016 from 10.00 am to 03.30 am
Thursday, 04th of August 2016 from 10.00 am to 03.30 am
Friday, 05th of August 2016 from 10.00 am to 03.30 am
Saturday, 06th of August 2016 from 10.00 am to 03.30 am
Sunday, 07th of August 2016 from 03.30 am to 12.00 pm (noon)

- Own key and access during the Opening Hours
- The lockers are insured and protect your valuables

During opening hours there are employees of the company “Carderobe” at the truck, available for your questions and support.

You can book all the Carderobe events at the Carderobe Homepage.

Wacken Open Air news Written 2016-01-29 00:55:51

W:O:A Metal Battle news

The Metal Battle takes place for the 13th time in 2016. Since then it brings together the worldwide metal scenes at the Wacken Open Air. In this decade the contest supported several bands at their starting point of their career, e.g. Drone, Torture Squad, Battle Beast and Hammercult.

But not only for the bands the Metal Battle is a fantastic option to represent themselves. Although many countries joined the Metal Battle which the metal world didn’t pay much attention to before; even as these countries have a great metal scene as well. That’s the reason why the Metal Battle grew and more than 40 countries joined the competition. Countries like Canada, Mexico, South Africa, the Middle East, Bulgaria, China, Japan (just to name a few) entered this worldwide network to figure out one band that represents their local scene at the international final round at the Wacken Open Air.

Traditionally the final takes place at the WET Stage and since 3 years also at the Headbanger’s Stage of the W:O:A. The bands do have the option to give hell to the audience of the biggest metal festival in the world and to show them what metal is about in their home country.

In the past the international jury (1 judge from each participating country) chose 1 winning band. Since the last year the jury will select a “top 5” and the bands will be rewarded with material and cash prizes.

Also the Metal Battle final at the W:O:A will be a forum for all participating bands where they can get in touch with producers, manager, booking agents and labels. So the Metal Battle gives a chance to all participating bands to establish contacts which can be useful for their musical future.

just one week after the pre-sale start we have already sold way more than a 1000 tickets including the limited to 500 Early Winter Tickets.

You are really crazy. Thank you for your loyalty and your unabated support!

The regular 3-Day Tickets for 69.00€ are already on sale since last week and the shipping of the tickets has begun!
Tickets are available exclusively at Metaltix.com.

Further we take a moment to answer you most burning questions:
• Will there be day tickets and when will they be sold?
-> In the near future we have not planned to sell day tickets. But if the demand is big enough we will have a look at it. In this case we rely on your feedback!
• Do you plan to sell family ticktets / How about the entry fee for children below 12 years?
-> Yes! Children under the age of 12 are free (as already stated in the terms of service). We also plan some sort of family tickets for Friday/Saturday & Saturday/Sunday. Info regarding this will follow soon!
• Will there be specail parking lots or camping areas for Campers and/or trailers?
-> Yes! Besides several regular parking lots we plan to add a special camping / parking area for campers & trailers. More detailed info will follow soon!
• Is the program already complete or will more artists follow?
-> The whole festival program will be elaborated and expanded as time moves on and also the Line-up will get some more nice reinforcements!

Only a few months are left until W:O:A 2015 and today we can present you the first version of our running order! This first version only contains the big stages in the infield and our two tent stages.

New band – Suicide Silence
Together with the running order, we can also announce the second W:O:A performance of Suicide Silence! With their new singer, Eddie Hermida, Suicide Silence have recorded the strong album You Can´t Stop Me in 2014 – and we’re looking forward to heat the new songs at the festival!

More about Suicide Silence

Furthermore, we like to announce the return of the Wacken veterans Skyline and Victims of Madness!

Metal Madness – W:O:A 2015 sold out in 12 hours
The 25th anniversary of the Wacken Open Air just endet 36 hours ago and already the promoters are able to confirm the sold out for the Wacken Open Air 2015. It is the 10th sold out in a row. Within 12 hours all 75.000 tickets for the 26th W:O:A were sold.

It is the fastest sold out in the entire history of the festival and it beats the record of the previous year: The 26th Wacken Open Air is sold out within 12 hours. “We are absolutely overwhelmed. Last year we were sold out in 48 hours. Now it only took 12 hours. We would like to thank all our fans for their amazing support and loyalty“, said Thomas Jensen, one of the promoters.

Because of this enormous request and the high number of orders the promoters assume that there will be some double bookings and cancellations because of missed due dates for payment. As soon as all the orders are checked and tickets are still available, interested metalheads can register online for a waiting list.

For the Wacken Open Air 2015 the Trans-Sibirian Orchestra and the reunion of Savatage, who will play for the first time after on decade, are already confirmed. Furthermore Running Wild will celebrate their comeback 2015 in Wacken. More bands for the billing are: In Flames, Sabaton, In Extremo, Ensiferum, Kataklysm, Cannibal Corpse, Powerwolf, Sepultura, Amorphis - Special Tales From The Thousand Lakes Show, Death Angel and Thyrfing, which will rock the „Holy Land“ . Another confirmed band is U.D.O. with Wacken icon Udo Dirkschneider, who will play a special show with the support of the Musikkorps der Bundeswehr.

Three sunny days with countless Metal highlights in a cheerful atmosphere - that was the 25th Wacken Open Air. Performances by Accept, Motörhead, Slayer and Amon Amarth were among the most spectacular moments of this anniversary edition. “We are very happy. Everything was peaceful and with the foldable water bottles, we gave out to every Metalhead in the Full Metal Bag, and the free drinking water supplies at the infield and the campgrounds, we were optimally prepared for the hot temperatures“, says Thomas Jensen, one of the festival's two promoters.

With the crew in the middle of the dismantling work and the 75,000 fans on their way home, it is already time for the first news regarding W:O:A 2015. The promoters are happy to announce the first bands for next year: To highlights will be the performances of Trans-Sibirian Orchestra and the reunion of Savatage, who will play live again for the first time in a decade. Running Wild will also celebrate their return. “It is time to present Running Wild live again. Since this has to happen with a big bang, there is no better place to do that than in Wacken“, explains frontman Rolf Kasparek.

The other bands who will shake the „Holy Land“ next year so far are In Flames, Sabaton, In Extremo, Ensiferum, Kataklysm, Cannibal Corpse, Powerwolf, Sepultura, Amorphis - Special Tales From The Thousand Lakes Show, Death Angel and Thyrfing. On top, U.D.O. with Wacken icon Udo Dirkschneider will play a special show accompanied by the orchestra of the German armed forces.
Tickets for W:O:A 2015 will go on sale on Monday, August 4, den 4. August 2014, exclusively at http://www.metaltix.com.

Festival News Written 2014-07-21 12:24:03

Maps, Running Order, Opening Hour - All important info for the upcoming festival!

There are only 2 weeks left until the 25th Anniversary starts and at this point we want give you a summary of all important info about the upcoming festival:

- The festival maps which are seperated into Holy Wacken Land Plan and Camping Site Plan will help you to orientate on the festival grounds.

- The Running Order shows you the playtimes of all bands on all stages.

- The popular Running Order Tool is also back online and allows you to create you own personal running order consisting only out of bands which you really want to see.

- The Shuttle Bus Schedule supports you with all arrival and departure times from Wacken to train station Itzehoe and back.

- The Opening Hours - as the name already suggests you can find all opening and closure times of all festival areas in this document.

- The Festival ABC#[/b] is a summary of all important festival specific information and rules of conduct sorted from A to Z.

Important: Until the festival starts there may occur some small changes here and there (subject to be change!)

Less than 2 weeks are left until the festival begins and to bring you into the right mood we have started the W:O:A video countdown with new live and backstage material shown daily.
Once a week there will be also a big voting giving you the opportunity to choose the next video.

Also Harry Metal is back on spot to support all metalheads wiht his daily "infrastructure updates" from the construction phase of the festival.

If you don´t want to miss any of the new videos than feeld free to subscribe to WackenTV

Service for Metalheads with disabilities

To make the ultimate festival experience also available for our visitors with reduced mobility, we’re including a new service at the festival. In this year the ThiesMediCenter GmbH will help us with know-how, material and staff.

We The People Of Wacken

We The People of Wacken is (as the name suggests) a book about those people who are responsible for the worldwide reputation of Wacken in the metal world - YOU!

The photo book portraits the best fans in the world and was created by the award winning photographer Pep Bonnet. On 180 pages he documented and accompanied all kinds of W:O:A fans from all over the world and all pictures suggest the same impression - they were taken at right time! A journey around the world done in the microcosm of one village is now immortalized in a sleek stylish black/and white photo book. We The People of Wacken - That´s all about you!

The set is also completed by a double-disc filled with a set of songs from the 2013 ‘Live At Wacken’ CD.

Festival News Written 2014-07-03 06:52:54

Avantasia - W:O:A Warm-Up Show 2014

Just two days before the beginning of Wacken Open Air 2014, Avantasia will play a special "Family & Friends Show" at the Eiderlandhalle in Pahlen (40 km away from Wacken).

This homelike show will be a huge contrast to the big Avantasia show which will take place just 2 days later, only a few kilometers away in front of tens of thousands of fans on the True Metal Stage.

Tobias Sammet: "After more than one year I am really looking forward to see all of my Avantasia colleagues again so we can set a last full stop to the "World Mystery Tour" with a big highlight show in Wacken. To show ourselves that we haven´t become a bit rusty we have decided to do a small attunement with this intimate Warm Up Show. So even Die-Hard fans who weren´t able to get a W:O:A ticket have the chance to see Avantasia live on stage. But also those who are already on their way and those who have just arrived at the festival ground have the possibility to see the Warm Up Show. I am really looking forward to this because the only thing that is better than one Avantasia show are two Avantasia shows! See you!"

Due to the closeness to the festival, owners of a W:O:A ticket (or members of the official Avantasia-fanclub) only pay 15€ plus fees (regular price: 25€ plus fees)! Everybody who will already be at Wacken at this time can take a bus shuttle to the venue for just a small fee of 5€. You have to reserve your shuttle seats under http://bit.ly/avantasiashuttle_en so that we are able to properly plan the capacity.

The reservation system for the Metal Travel busses from Hamburg and Berlin will be closed July 22nd and after that it`s no longer possible to make an online reservation. Many busses are closed already! To secure your seats it´s recommended to book ahead!

Motörhead – Aftershock Tour Edition

Tour edition released with "Lost Woman Blues" live from San Francisco on July 7th, 2014

In October 2013, Motörhead released their 21st studio album, Aftershock, to great international acclaim and a slew of top 10 to 40 album spots.

This summer of 2014 will see Motörhead officially tour the European festival circuit, their first strong of shows since the album's release, and to celebrate this, UDR/Motörhead Music / ADA will be re-releasing the album under the title Aftershock - Tour Edition on July 7th. This expanded release will contain a bonus disc of live material comprised from the band's historic appearances at the 2014 West Coast Tour, and in further celebration, UDR/Motörhead Music/ ADA are proud to present "Lost Woman Blues" live from The Warfield in San Francisco on Friday April 18th, 2014. The show was part of the band's warm-up mini tour for the forthcoming European festivals, and the song's performance, verve, swagger and attitude show Motörhead have maintained their rich ripeness and added another layer of grit and polish.

Festival News Written 2014-07-02 10:35:42

Here are the new area maps for Wacken 2014!

The Camping Site Map shows you an overview of the whole area including all camping sites.
The camping map informs about all kinds of camping areas (for example camping only, handicapped and so on) as well as locations of supermarkets, shower camps, garbage bases and all other important positions beyond the festival area.

The Holy Wacken Land Map shows detailed information about the festival area which, like in the last two years, is trisected into Wacken Center, Wacken Plaza and Infield.

Backdawn beated the competition in France and were founded in 2011. The band plays a mix of Thrash, Death, Sludge and Doom and are ready to rock the international finals in Wacken!

Hellhound were founded in 2002 and are the winners of this years national Metal-Battle finale in Japan. The band has already released 3 full lenght albums and are hot topic for all fans of true heavy metal!

Nordic Mythology is what defines the next band - Huldre from Denmark is the next finalist and will exhance the Metal Battle with their fantastic nordic folk metal!

The fourth new Metal-Battle band comes from the Netherlands and is called Purest of Pain. This band celebrates death metal with brutal passion. The band already recored a few Ep´s including a music video!

Futher Metal-Battle finalists will follow soon!

Festival News Written 2014-06-20 20:05:12

New location for the wheelchair platform

The platforms are relocated back into the Infield to include the wheelchair users even better. At the same time the platform at the foreground will not be provided any more. There will be one platform at the True Stage and another one at the Party Stage. Only wheelchair users will get access to these platforms. Accompaniers are only allowed to help them to enter the platform.

Iced Earth will not play at Wacken this year. Because of medical reasons, the band is forced to cancel their festival shows.

The statement by Iced Earth:
It is with sincere apologies that I write to inform you all that ICED EARTH is forced to cancel this summer’s festivals and headline shows.

As many of you know, I underwent surgery on my neck in the year 2000, due to an onstage injury that occurred in 1996. Since that time, I have battled with this problem, and it has begun to accelerate in the past several months, causing additional issues that can no longer be ignored.

In February, while on tour in Europe, I underwent highly specialized treatment in Germany from a doctor who has helped, among many others, Tony Iommi and Eddie Van Halen. This treatment helped sustain my ability to perform so that we could complete our Worldwide Plagues Tour. However, I am now forced to take further, more invasive action sooner than I intended in order to maintain my overall health. Surgery was originally planned to take place in September during our break, but I have now been advised to have the procedure completed sooner rather than later.

As much as it pains me and everyone else in our camp to have to cancel these dates, this is something that cannot be put aside any longer.

Once the surgery and recovery are completed, we will be back to work – healthy, strong, and ready to bring the metal to you, our fans.

Best wishes to you all,

Jon Schaffer

Festival News Written 2014-05-25 11:06:38

Dear Metalheads,

This year you have the possibility to take part in cooking courses in the Wacken Foundation Camp. For this the kitchen company “Küchen Kate Pinneberg” will equip a tent with all necessary kitchen furniture and kitchenware.

There will be two different kinds of cooking courses:
1) Survival Cooking
2) Star Cooking.

1) During the Survival Cooking the chefs of the cooking school in Pinneberg Stephan Boris (Ex-Running Wild bass player) and Lars Ginsberg will show 5 participants at each course how to cook something better than Ravioli from a tin at festivals with only little resources. The Survival Cooking will take place from, Wednesday 30th July to Saturday, 2nd August 2014 at 11 am and 5:30 pm every day. The participation costs € 15.

You can register yourself for the Survival Cooking from today on by sending an email to survivalcooking@wacken.com. Your registration email has to contain the following information:

· Your complete name

· Your date of birth

· Your telephone number

Please note that you can only register one person per email. The first 40 registrations that arrive us will be taken into consideration and if you will receive a confirmation email with all further information.

2) The Star Cooking is actually a different Meet & Greet. It will take place from Wednesday to Saturday at 3 pm every day. Here 5 participants can cook with an artist/organizer of the W:O:A. The places for participation will be auctioned beforehand. More information about which artists will cook with you and how you can snatch a place will be published in the end of May 2014.

Festival News Written 2014-05-23 04:07:34

Hello Metalheads,

in todays newsletter we supply you with a summary of new confirmed bands for W:O:A, the Hamburg Metal Dayz and the Full Metal Cruise.

We had a lot of band announcements within the last days.
With bands like Slayer, Death Angel, Hell, Van Canto or Hämatom (amongst many others) we have enlarge this years Anniversay billing once more.
A complete overview of new bands can be found below.

Hamburg Metal Dayz – Dark Tranquillity will take part and the running order is online!

The last band for this year’s Hamburg Metal Dayz is no other than the Swedish melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity!

The Band was found as Septic Broiler in the late 80s and changed its name to Dark Tranquillity in 1990. Coming from thrash metal, the band developed the famous Gothenburg metal sound together with In Flames and At The Gates, which means they kick-started the melodic death metal itself.

In 2013, the band released its 10th studio album, called Construct, which confirmed the status of the band once more. We’re looking forward to welcome the band at Hamburg’s Markthalle this year!

The list of bands for 2014 is complete by now! You want to know the playtimes of the bands? Check out the running order, which is now online too!

Tickets for both days and day tickets for Friday and Saturday are available at Metaltix.com!
Hotline +49 (0) 4827 - 999 666 66

Two new bands for the Full Metal Cruise II

Ahoy Metalheads,

There’s a new addition to the Full Metal Cruise II billing:

Since the 80’s Peter “Peavy” Wagner, Victor Smolski and André Hilgers of Rage are rocking the stages worldwide. Now they’re planning to rock the “Mein Schiff 1” as well.

The same also applies for the legendary Axxis, who will ensure a heavy sea with their mixture of Melodic Heavy and Power Metal.

Today we present you some other kind of W:O:A Warm Party - The so called "Metaltörns"

On May 9th and June 27th we will board a ship in North and Baltic Sea and celebrate the first Warm Up Parties by water!

The birthday of port Hamburg on May 9th, 2014 will be again celebrated in metal! Last year there was the first Full Metal Cruise that played their hard music at the landing stages and this year there will be the first Metaltörn.

The Metaltörn will be taking place at the Nordstern (North star) and is the first floating W:O:A Warm Up Party.

The trip will take at least 4 hours and the bands Stormwarrior and Mr. Hurley & die Pulveraffen will bring you the finest warrior and viking rock/metal. Last but not least you can participate into the freaky Trash Bingo; with Maschine!

During the Kieler Woche on June 27th, 2014 there will be Heavy Metal all around. Metalheads have the opportunity to board the Nordstern once again for the second Metaltörn!

The live program also includes Stormwarrior and Mr. Hurley & die Pulveraffen as well as Drone´s singer Mutz with a special acoustic set (already known from the Full Metal Cruise).

Additional to that the DJs Otti and Holger from the Ballroom Hamburg will get the party started. More surprises like W:O:A Goodies and a W:O:A VIP ticket lottery are waiting for you.

Tickets are available now! Hurry and get your ticket to board the Nordstern for a memorable metal trip.

As every year, one can book your own safe deposite box. The company CaDeRobe will be providing two trucks on the Wacken Open Air, where lockboxes can be rented.
You can find them near the Bullhead Circus at the Wacken Plaza.

The newest date for the Metal Monday has been confirmed. This time the three metalcore bands Tracy Ate A Bug, After Years Of Hope and Kill All The Sexy People are going to rock the place and having a bast together with their fans.

For more info about the Metal Monday and all coming events please visit www.metaltix.com.

The worldwide first and only HeavyMetal mail service!

Did you already tried Wacken Fanmail? Become a member of the HeavyMetal community "Wacken" now and save your personal Wacken FanMail adress following the pattern "YourName@wacken.de" and costs 0,99€ per month.

Certainly all functions you know from other mail clients like inbox, calendar or contact list are included. But there are also a few extra features like the current weather forecast for Wacken or a newsfeed from www.wacken.com to keep you up to date.

Festival News Written 2014-01-15 14:56:28

Hello Metalheads, we wish you a happy new year and like to welcome you to 2014!
The first newsletter of our Anniversary will give you the newest information about the most important topics!

The main topic of this newsletter is the Full Metal Bag 2014 and we also got the January wallpaper for you. Other topics are the winners of our Advent calendar and the rentable mobile toilets at W:O:A 2014.

Full:Metal:Bag 2014

Also in 2014 you will get the Full:Metal:Bag (FOR FREE!!!) after changing your ticket into a wristband at the wristband exchange.

New in 2014: The foldable water bottle! This bottle allows you to take a soft drink with you to the stage areas without worrying about things like the allowed size of your Tetra Pak. And when the bottle is empty, you can fold it until you need it again!

The F:M:B also again contains some nice items to successful survive at the W:O:A, like for example ear plugs for safe music consumption, a rain poncho or a ball pen.

The year 2014 has just begun and for all the wallpaper fanatics out there we present (with a bit of delay) the first calendar sheet for 2014.
This wallpaper is available as always in 8 different resolutions for download.

W:O:A Camperpark - Toilet To Go is available again

Also in this year the Camper-Service-Wacken GbR offers your own „private toilet“ for rent during the duration of the festival.

You'll get the toilet as a set in which everything you need is included:
- the „compact-toilet”
- a 20 liter canister with water for filling the cistern of the flush toilet
- 3 special rolls of toiletpaper for a good decomposition in the tank of wastewater
- a biologically degradable product of decomposition for about 8 tankfuls of in each case 20 liters
- a toilet brush
- directions for use

Wacken FanMail - The worldwide first and only HeavyMetal mail service!

Did you already tried Wacken Fanmail? Become a member of the HeavyMetal community "Wacken" now and save your personal Wacken FanMail adress following the pattern "YourName@wacken.de" and costs 0,99€ per month.

Certainly all functions you know from other mail clients like inbox, calendar or contact list are included. But there are also a few extra features like the current weather forecast for Wacken or a newsfeed from www.wacken.com to keep you up to date.

In addition there are lots of pictures from W:O:A, which will decorate your desktop at home.

But that´s not all! The profits of the incomes will be split and donated to the first half to the parish Wacken and to the second to the Wacken Foundation which has devoted itself to support newcomers from the hard and heavy metal music sector.

Our online Advent calendar is going to start on Sunday – as always on www.metaltix.com!

We will present new bands on a daily base (always at Midnight!) and raffle prizes there Every day we ask you a question about Heavy Metal or Wacken Open Air. Answer the daily question and fill in the contact form. Therewith you take part in the raffle of the daily prizes.
Every daily answer contains a certain letter for the main solution (the question for the main solution will be asked on the 24th of December), which consists of 24 letters. The main solution as well as your full address must be entered into the contact form under “prizes” (on the upper left of the calendar) which will not be activated until the 24th of December 2013.

If you solve the main solution you have the chance to win great star-prizes, such as:

The Amazing Star Price:

Win a cruise with the new Mein Schiff 3 at the western Mediterranean Sea from the 19th of October until the 26th of October 2014. The Voucher is for two and powered by Tui Cruises.
More information can be found HERE.
.
More Star Prices:
Rocksmith 2014 (for PS3, XBOX360 and PC) (powered by Ubisoft)
3x NINTENDO 3DS XL (incl. 3 Games)
2x signed W:O:A Guitars
Rock Meets Classic – 1 Meet & Greet for 2 incl. VIP Tickets, signed Program Guide and Backstage Guidance (Choose a city in Germany)
EMP Voucher of 250€ value(powered by EMP)
2 vouchers for Hotel Mercure Itzehoe – redeemable until the 31st of December 2014 (powered by Hotel Mercure Itzehoe)
1x W:O:A Memories voucher of 200€ value(powered by Jenomics)

All main prizes and the sponsors (Thank you very much!) can be found by clicking the „prizes” button.

Have fun with the calendar and good luck at the raffles wishes:

Your
W:O:A crew

Festival News Written 2013-11-01 18:02:38

Hello Metalheads,

It´s time for a new W:O:A Newsletter.

Let´s start with the announcement of our upcoming X-Mas special sale at the W:O:A Info Office in Wacken.

Further we have news regarding: brand new merch in our shop, new pictures in our gallery, the voting for the European Festival Awards and last but not least news regarding Ugly Kid Joe and A Pale Horse Named Death.

Winter is coming and therewith X-Mas time!
On Friday, November 29th and Saturday, November 30th 2013 we will start the next special sale at the W:O:A Info Office in Wacken!

On both days you can shop till you drop from 09.00 am to 07.00 pm!
Wacken merchandise with special discounts, fan stuff and the new W:O:A 2014 collection! For the first time you can get the limited X-Mas Shirts, Santa Claus hats (in black) as well as X-Mas chocolate calendars and many other items. Either for yourself or as a present for X-Mas - There's something for everybody!

Everyone who brings the X-Mas sale flyer will also get a special goodie for free!!

The Full:Metal:Army – our official fan club - will also be back on spot. Inform yourself about the Full:Metal:Army and become a member!

The price battle is not only fought by the W:O:A. The Battle-Merchant in Wacken is also selling remaining stock, unique pieces and articles for hobbyists with a discount of up to 60%!
The whole range of products will also be sold with a minimum discount of 10%! The Battle Merchant can be found at Street "Gehrn 4” in Wacken

From the 29th of November to the 30th of November (09.00 am - 07.00 pm) Be there or be square!

Festival News Written 2013-10-07 02:28:32

Hello Metalheads,

This weekend it´s time for a special newsletter.

The Hamburg Metal Dayz are one and as promised we will give you the next big package with band announcements W:O:A 2014.

The Hamburg Metal Dayz are on and as promised we don’t want to keep you in suspense any longer – here is the next big band package!
We start with 2 last minute announcements we have arranged for you:

Heaven Shall Burn
This band from Thüringen does not only in Germany belong to one of the most successful metalcore bands of the present. With early records like “Whatever It May Take”, “Antigone” but also with the so called “Iconclast” trilogy and their latest output “Veto” they gained a huge fan base all around the world and are known for their heavy brutal shows. For the 25th Anniversary they will not be missed and will once again destroy the holy ground. Be prepared!

J.B.O.
Their appearance is a guarantee for fun! Their last W:O:A appearance of the German cult comedy metal band was in 2009. Enough reason to let the pink army faction again into the Holy Ground once again!

Devin Townsend Project
Devin Townsend is back! The musical genius was playing at Wacken only once before – about 16 years ago – and now he will return to perform at the W:O:A anniversary.
Next to his solo projects he was also the head of famous band Strapping Young Lad and overall he has released 20 studio albums by now. It’s hard to classify the music genre because of this mass of releases, but the most obvious style seems to be progressive metal .

Sodom
Besides the already confirmed Kreator we can now announce the next Thrash Metal legend for the Anniversary!
Tom Angelripper and his Thrash-Metal comrades have just released their newest album "Epitome Of Torture" and will for sure break some necks at the upcoming W:O:A.

Onkel Tom
Tom Angelripper again. Besides his live appearance with Sodom he also won´t miss the Anniversary with his solo band "Onkel Tom".
That means party mood is preprogrammed!!!

Decapitated
In the last decade a lot has happened with the polish death metal band Decapitated and not many other bands would have been able to bring up the strength to proceed after the strokes of fate the band has suffered. But that´s history and the polish death metal spearhead is more than ready to return once again to Wacken and blow the audience away!

For The Imperium
Let´s proceed with a Wacken debutant. To describe the style of this band from Finland is not easy. The sound of this band is combining progressive, alternative and avant-garde elements in a really refreshing way. They already gained a lot of fame in their home country Finland and are now ready to conquer the rest of Europe and world!

The Ocean
Another Wacken debutant. The band was originally founded in Berlin but due to the origin of most of the current band members they are now situated in Switzerland.
Since their founding their sound changed as often as their line-up and their style is currently settled somewhere between Mastodon and Deftones with a creativity that is hard to compare to other bands. Check them out!

Endstille
The German black metal battleship Endstille returns to Wacken Open Air in 2014 and before they will release the new album Kapitulation 2013. Get ready for war!

Torment
Torment is without any doubt one of the pioneers of German thrash metal scene and in 2014 they will celebrate their 30th Anniversary. The band furthermore belongs to the Wacken pioneers too: They played their first W:O:A show back in 1993.

Masterplan
German power metal band Masterplan returns to Wacken after 10 years of abstinence. Shortly before they will release their fifth studio album “Novum Initium”!

Knorkator
Germany’s most band in the world is back! What? Yeah, exactly! The fun metal band will return to W:O:A in 2014 and we’re looking forward to hilarious piggy-back pogo pits and the world’s greatest mass handstand.

A Pale Horse Named Death
A Pale Horse Named Death plays music which fits in the gap between Type O Negative and Alice in Chains and in 2013 they released their second album. This classification isn’t a coincidence, the band consists of metal veterans and some of them also played at Type O Negative itself. And in 2014 it will be finally time for the big one: For W:O:A!

Check out Billing/Bands for more information!

The next huge wave of bands as well as some surprises in our billing will be announced at Advent season as usual.

Stay tuned!

Wacken news Written 2013-10-02 12:01:54

Wacken Open Air 2014 - Last chance for a ticket

After the anniversary edition of the Wacken Open Air was sold out within 44 hours, there are now some tickets available again. Metalheads have the opportunity to be waitlisted for tickets.

It took the metalheads no longer than 48 hours to buy all of the 75.000 tickets for the 25th Wacken Open Air. Because of the great demand some of the orders were not paid within the legal time limit. Luckily for all the metalheads without a ticket: Now this contingent will be available for sale. “To give all of the metal heads the same opportunity, we will establish a waiting list followed by a drawing which we never did before in the history of the Wacken Open Air.” Said Thomas Jensen, one of the promoters of the W:O:A.

The application for the waiting list is possible with a Metaltix account. Every customer is allowed to apply for the maximum of two tickets. The waiting list will be available from now until October 13, 2013 11pm (CET). At October 14 the tickets will be drawn.

For more information about the drawing procedure, please visit www.wacken.com

Festival News Written 2013-08-11 06:00:56

Hello Metalheads,

The 24th Wacken Open Air is over and all tickets for the 25th Anniversary are already Sold Out!

Today we can confirm that Wacken Open Air is SOLD OUT for the ninth time in a row!!!

And regarding the pre-sale time we have overcome the previous year by many times. We never had expected to reach the total SOLD OUT in less than 48 hours. All 75.000 tickets are sold.

THANX FOR YOUR SUPPORT, METALHEADS – THIS IS UNBELIVEABLE!!!

A dozen bands for the billing have been already announced including several special and exclusive shows as well as high-class acts. As every year we have made every effort to provide a terrific billing! And the announcements won´t stop. During the Hamburg Metal Dayz (27th to 29th of September 2013) and our online Advent Calendar in December we will at least confirm one band per day. Together we will turn the 25th Anniversay of Wacken Open Air into a mega party!

although there are 12 months left until the festival starts and we are still busy with the deconstruction, the arrangements of course are already running. We can´t wait until next August. The tickets will be shipped (depending on the payment receipt) as soon as possible!

Important!!!: Tickets you hitherto ordered at Metaltix will be certainly delivered if you received an order acceptance! Please be aware that due to the enormous demand on tickets the processing of orders will take it´s time. So please be a bit patient.

For those who haven´t bought a ticket yet there are the following options:

Due to the masses of orders we assume that there will be several doublings and reversals for example due to missing payments after the deadline for paying is over. As soon as these reversed orders are filtered we will bring this small ticket contingent back on sale. We will inform you in time if and when this will happen.

First of all please have in mind that we are now working with a full ticket personalization. That means that selling as well as buying tickets on other platforms than metaltix.com or the ticket exchange are accusable (like I the last year). We fed in the personalization to beware you from rip-offs. The ones who still buy tickets elsewhere take the high risk to buy invalid tickets.

Furthermore you have the chance to offer or buy a ticket at our new upcoming ticket exchange. This new ticket exchange is completely anonymized! Purchasers and Sellers will automatically refered to each other in some kind of waiting list.

All info about the new ticket exchange as well as the new personalization can be found in the FAQ

Fans and loyalty were always the heart of the festival!

Blasting the North in August! See you in Wacken - Rain or Shine!

We thank you all again for your amazing support and your loyalty.

Festival News Written 2013-08-06 06:09:52

Wacken Open Air 2013 – harder, faster, hotter!

One of the hottest Wacken Open Airs of all times ended on the weekend. Next to temperatures of over 30 degrees also the headliners of the festival like Rammstein with their great fire show fired up the 75.000 Metalheads.

The 24th edition of the Wacken Open Air is now part of the festival history. Besides originals like Alice Cooper, Deep Purple and Motörhead, especially Rammstein fascinated the crowd with their spectacular performance. But also the weather had some surprises in store: Next to temperatures over 30 degrees, short and heavy showers brought back puddles of mud.

The organizer Thomas Jensen and Holger Hübner draw a positive conclusion: “We already had a really good construction phase. Maybe this was a good omen since the festival days were amazing. For us it is the most important thing that the community enjoys the festival and celebrates peacefully. And from all that we heard that was the case.”

For the Wacken Open Air in 2014, the organizer already announced some bands. Amon Amarth, Apocalyptica mit Orchester, Arch Enemy, Avantasia, Behemoth, Children of Botom, Emperor, Iced Earth, King Diamond, Kreator, Prong and Schandmaul will be playing at the 25th anniversary of the W:O:A. Further band announcements will be made at the W:O:A-Kick-Off Party at the Hamburg Metal Dayz at the 28th of September in Hamburg.

The ticket sale for the 25th Wacken Open Air began on the 5th of August. Until the late afternoon round about 40.000 tickets were sold. More information about the already confirmed bands and about the ticket sale are available at www.wacken.com. Please also visit the official Wacken Open Air youtube channel at www.youtube.com/wackentv/.

Festival News Written 2013-07-26 23:20:32

Hello metalheads,

today we have a special newsletter for you regarding a unique new service: Wacken FanMail - The worldwide first and only HeavyMetal mail service!

Read all important information about the Service NOW!

All further inforamtion and news about the festival can be found at www.wacken.com

Wacken FanMail - The worldwide first and only HeavyMetal mail service

In the past we got a lot of requests of fans or whole fanclubs regarding the possibility to establish a fan e-mail address with the ending @wacken.

This wasn´t possible until now but after looking around for a while we have found a fitting partner for this service called Mail.de.

Become a member of the HeavyMetal community "Wacken" now and save your personal Wacken FanMail adress following the pattern "YourName@wacken.de" and costs 0,99€ per month.

Certainly all functions you know from other mail clients like inbox, calendar or contact list are included. But there are also a few extra features like the current weather forecast for Wacken or a newsfeed from www.wacken.com to keep you up to date.

In addition there are lots of pictures from W:O:A 2012 and soon 2013 which will decorate your desktop at home.

But that´s not all! The profits of the incomes will be split and donated to the first half to the parish Wacken and to the second to the Wacken Foundation which has devoted itself to support newcomers from the hard and heavy metal music sector.

According to your feedback during the last year we take the next step in the development of ticket personalization. Due to this the

W:O:A 2014 tickets will be completely personalized

(The name of the owner will be printed on the ticket)!

To proceed against black market, black marketers and Ebay-hustlers we once more have optimized the Wacken ticket personalization.

Along with this we want to inform you as soon as possible about the upcoming changes and improvements. There will be no big changes at the general order process excerpt the fact that you have to fill in your complete name and those of your friends (for which you eventually order tickets for) into the form during the order process at www.metaltix.com

NEW W:O:A ticket exchange

The resale of W:O:A 2014 tickets is strictly forbidden. The only exception under specific circumstances is our new W:O:A ticket exchange. It will be completely anonymized (sellers and purchasers can´t get in contact with each other and will be automatically allocated via a waiting list. That means it´s no more possible to make any price agreements). The ticket will be sold for the original price and the ticket seller MUST be the owner of the ticket. (The name printed on the ticket has to match with the name on the copy of the personal id of the seller).

Furthermore there will be a small change regarding the maximum amount of purchasable X-MAS tickets:

Due to the incredible demand which always led to a sold out of X-MAS tickets in a record time of less than one hour we have limited the maximum amount of tickets to 2 X-Mas tickets per person and order.

The X-Mas ticket in general is as always limited to 10.000 and includes (like in the past) the iconic X-Mas shirt, the limited CD-sampler and much more…

Through this measure we hope to increase the equality of opportunity for every fan to get one of the highly demanded X-Mas tickets!

But that´s not all! (Special Anniversary Shirt)

As a small “Thank you” gift for your longtime loyalty every buyer of the regular W:O:A 3-DAY-ALL-IN-TICKETS has the possibility to order one special priced and limited W:O:A 2014 Anniversary Shirt with every ordered ticket! You just pay 14,99 € including postage (instead of 20€ plus postage). Just drop the T-Shirt into the shopping basket during the order process of the W:O:A tickets on www.metaltix.com (the shipping will be executed by EMP Merchandising GmbH and will start approximately on September 1st 2013). The offer ends on August 31st 2013*

*This additional offer is not essential and it´s availability is temporarily and quantitatively limited to a premature sold out. This does not affect purchasers with already ordered and paid tickets!

We think that we have taken an important step to proceed effectively against the black- /secondary market. At the same time we can oblige your wishes from last year´s survey regarding ticket personalization. If you have any further suggestions or questions feel free to write an email to:personalization@wacken.com

Last but not least here´s a a short summary of the most important changes:
1) All Wacken tickets are personalized upfront. You have to fill in first name and surname during the order process. Names will be printed onto the ticket.
2) To obtain equality of opportunity the maximum amount of purchasable X-MAS Tickets per person and order is limited to 2 tickets. First name and surname of the additional person you order a ticket for has to also be filled in during the order process at www.metaltix.com !
3) It is still possible to order up to 5 tickets of the regular 3-Days-All In Ticket. First and surnames of ALL PERSONS have to be filled in during the order process at www.metaltix.com!
4) Tickets can´t be exchanged, handed over or resold anymore because they are bound to the name of each owner (Excerption: The new official and anonymized W:O:A ticket exchange). According to this we recommend the conclusion of a ticket insurance for a fee of 6,60€ during the order process. (Info regarding ticket insurance can be found HERE)
5) Name changes are possible for a fee of 15€ and require the submission of a copied personal id of the ticket owner.

A lot of changes at a single blow! Within the next days we will release an additional FAQ summary regarding the new personalization. We hope that we served you well with this!

yours
W:O:A team

Festival News Written 2013-07-17 23:09:56

Hello metalheads,

it´s about time for the next Newsletter!

Let´s begin with the announcement for upcoming Hamburg metal dayz which will take part for the second time!

We also doing 2 new contests: The cut-off contest and a Doro contest.
Further we have uploaded a new Wallpaper, a first podcast of Harry Metal and new merchandise articles!

Hey Metalheads!
From September 27th to 29th, the world of Heavy Metal will be part of the Reeperbahn Festival once more: The Hamburg Metal Dayz at the Markthalle are a forum for fans, up-and-coming rockers and business professionals.

During three days, approx. 13 bands from the harder range of music will play, among them heavy hitters like Children Of Bodom, Rage, Caliban, Eskimo Callboy, Insomnium and The New Black. In panels and roundtable discussions, music business insiders will share their knowledge, while well-known players will be showing licks & tricks during workshops for musicians. There will be exhibitions, readings and signing sessions, where fans can meet the artists. The finals for the “Robert Johnson Guitar Award” (worth 10.000€) will also be held at the Markthalle. Jury members include guitar virtuoso Uli Jon Roth.

Gathering at the Hamburg Metal Dayz will not only be concert goers and musicians, but also professionals of the Metal business. For those, another point of interest will be the Reeperbahn Festival Campus with conference program, networking events and showcases. Accreditation is needed (see below).

The first Hamburg Metal Dayz in September 2012 were enjoyed by more than 3000 visitors. The second edition once again sees two festivals - both internationally renowned, but each with its own distinctive musical identity - joining forces.

Holger Hübner from W:O:A: “We’re looking forward to introducing Heavy Metal to the Reeperbahn Festival for a second time – with great shows for the fans and opportunities for labels, promoter and agents to get together, even beyond the Metal scene.“

This makes the Hamburg Metal Dayz equally entertaining and valuable for fans and insiders alike. An updated list of bands and activities can be found unter "Bands" and "Schedule".

Pre-sale will start on Wednesday, July 3rd. Day tickets cost 28,50€ including fees and are available via www.metaltix.com, the Metaltix hotline +49 4627-183838 and other ticket outlets. Limited two day tickets for (45€ incl. fees) and three day tickets (67€ incl. fees) can be purchased via Metaltix exclusively.

Delegates and accredited journalists of the Reeperbahn Festival get free access to the Markthalle. Invited industry representatives of the Hamburg Metal Dayz can obtain reduced accreditations to the Reeperbahn Festival including all B2B events.

New in 2013: The W:O:A cut-off contest

We are looking for the most beautiful cut-off of W:O:A 2013! The W:O:A always has an impressive variety of cut-offs. comparisons and discussions are started all around the clock and at the whole festival site, many people are also buying new patches and accessories there.
Due to this and at the urging by fans from our forum we will hold a cut-off contest in 2013 and with the help from a jury of experts, we will elect the "most beautiful cut-off of W:O:A 2013".

Attention! Cut-off bearer for Doro performance needed!

Metal Queen Doro Pesch is going to celebrate her 30th stage anniversary, when she enters the stage at this year’s Wacken Open Air. For this special occasion Doro looks for some Metalheads to support her on stage!

W:O:A Wallpapers - Calendar sheet June 2013

Today we provide you with the calendar sheet July 2013 which will be available as wallpaper as always in 8 different resolutions.

Wacken Foundation Camp at the 24th Wacken Open Air

The Wacken Foundation Camp’s second year is coming up – and the camp will be double the size than last year!!

Festival News Written 2013-07-03 02:56:33

WACKEN 3D - louder than hell
set to shoot in July and August

‘WACKEN 3D - louder than hell’, a no holds barred exploration of the legendary Wacken
Open Air, the biggest heavy metal festival of the world, will shoot in July and August this
year. Director Nobert Heitker’s feature doc, shot by Producer and Director of Photography
Tomas Erhart in stereoscopic, “true” 3D will give audiences a chance to experience Wacken
– the fans, the music, the unique atmosphere – in the most intimate way.

Wacken is a true one-off. Beyond description. Every year, for three days in August, a sleepy
farming village in the middle of the Northern German countryside becomes the epicenter of
the metal universe. Almost 75,000 metal heads from around the globe invade the Wacken
Open Air to pay homage to the greatest bands of the international metal scene.

The first Wacken Open Air in 1990 attracted less than 800 attendees but since then it has
grown every year. Now it is the biggest open air festival of its kind. Tickets are sold out within
days – long before all of the participating bands are announced.

Much has been written and documented about the festival. But what exactly makes Wacken so
special? What gives it its magic – its soul? It is hard to answer these questions in mere words or
anecdotes. If you want to understand Wacken you have to experience it.

‘WACKEN 3D - louder than hell’ will allow audiences to do precisely that, taking them right
into the thick of it. Norbert Heitker, Tomas Erhart and their team will cover this year’s
complete Wacken Open Air around the clock, using 18 state of the art 3D cameras.
The film will go way beyond the POV of the normal festival attendees. It will take the
audience backstage to meet the bands before they perform, watching the faces of thousands
of excited fans, feeling the crowd-surfing up close. The cameras will cover through the metal
battles and the oompah music of the “Wacken Firefighters.” And, of course, an intimate
portrait of the festival fans – their stories, their outifits, their tents, and how they party.
WACKEN 3D will of course be filming the pivot of these three days – the humongous stage
shows of the greatest metal bands on earth.

Norbert Heitker has many years of experience under his belt, directing music films and
commercials. He has won numerous awards and accolades, including two Echos for films
with the bands “Rammstein” and “Die Ärzte.”

WACKEN 3D is produced by Tomas Erhart / Jumpseat 3D plus Germany, who is also the
director of photography, and Stefan Schubert of WÜSTE FILM. The production is backed by
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmförderung Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein,
Filmförderungsanstalt and Deutscher Filmförderfonds.

WACKEN 3D will be released in Germany in spring of 2014 and distributed by NFP
marketing & distribution*.

The Wacken Open Air 2013 is from August 1st to 3rd. The team will shoot from July 22 to
August 5 (production period).

For further information on the festival and the participating bands go to: www.wacken.com

Festival News Written 2013-07-01 11:57:07

Hello Metalheads,
todays newsletter is all about the personal running order and the Meet & Greets at W:O:A 2013 and the Kindergarten Vaale - which took a profit of a W:O:A auction in 2012.

Check it out!

Running Order Tool 2013

Which band, which stage and when? Our running order with playtimes of all bands is online for a while now. And now we release our popular Running Order Tool. This tool creates your personal running order with just a few clicks – containing only the bands you really want to see.

New in 2013: You now have the option to share your personal running order with your friends on facebook! A perfect option to schedule concerts you want to see with your friends or to get a thrill of anticipation.

News from the main supporter: Relentless Flash Pont and Relentless Meet & Greet Area

You need some kind of merciless to be a W:O:A supporter. Exactly this is proven by our partner Relentless Energy Dring, who is dedicaded to action sports, alternative music and also the extreme sport Wacken since several years. And of-course, our black partner isn't just the main sponsor, they are also active on ground - just for you.

The Relentless Meet & Greet Area next to the Black Stage will become - just als always - venue for memorable encounters for head and heart. A time table with the bands which will appear there in person will be released soon!

Take your official "I rocked the W:O:A" souvenir photo at the Relentless Flash Point - with the infield and the two main stages in the background! For sure you will cut a fine figure again.

Kids make a trip to a zoo thanks to FENDT

On 14th June 2013 the Kindergarden Storchennest from Vaale (close to Wacken) made trip to a zoo. They were able to finance the whole trip with their part of the proceeds of the auction of the FENDT engine bonnet in W:O:A 2012-design. Also the food for the trip and caps for all children could be paid with the money. The kids had a great day and the whole trip would not have been implemented without FENDT, who have put the bonnet at our disposal for auctioning.
The rest of the proceeds have been donated to the kindergarden from Wacken and the Wacken Foundation. We thank FENDT again for the generous donation and we are already looking forward to the cooperation at the upcoming Wacken Open Air in the Wacken Foundation Camp!!!!

Festival News Written 2013-07-01 11:53:36

Hello Metalheads,
todays newsletter is all about the personal running order and the Meet & Greets at W:O:A 2013 and the Kindergarten Vaale - which took a profit of a W:O:A auction in 2012.

Check it out!

Running Order Tool 2013

Which band, which stage and when? Our running order with playtimes of all bands is online for a while now. And now we release our popular Running Order Tool. This tool creates your personal running order with just a few clicks – containing only the bands you really want to see.

New in 2013: You now have the option to share your personal running order with your friends on facebook! A perfect option to schedule concerts you want to see with your friends or to get a thrill of anticipation.

News from the main supporter: Relentless Flash Pont and Relentless Meet & Greet Area

You need some kind of merciless to be a W:O:A supporter. Exactly this is proven by our partner Relentless Energy Dring, who is dedicaded to action sports, alternative music and also the extreme sport Wacken since several years. And of-course, our black partner isn't just the main sponsor, they are also active on ground - just for you.

The Relentless Meet & Greet Area next to the Black Stage will become - just als always - venue for memorable encounters for head and heart. A time table with the bands which will appear there in person will be released soon!

Take your official "I rocked the W:O:A" souvenir photo at the Relentless Flash Point - with the infield and the two main stages in the background! For sure you will cut a fine figure again.

Kids make a trip to a zoo thanks to FENDT

On 14th June 2013 the Kindergarden Storchennest from Vaale (close to Wacken) made trip to a zoo. They were able to finance the whole trip with their part of the proceeds of the auction of the FENDT engine bonnet in W:O:A 2012-design. Also the food for the trip and caps for all children could be paid with the money. The kids had a great day and the whole trip would not have been implemented without FENDT, who have put the bonnet at our disposal for auctioning.
The rest of the proceeds have been donated to the kindergarden from Wacken and the Wacken Foundation. We thank FENDT again for the generous donation and we are already looking forward to the cooperation at the upcoming Wacken Open Air in the Wacken Foundation Camp!!!!

Festival News Written 2013-06-13 14:22:27

Hello Metalheads !

The festival is coming closer with huge steps; just about 60 days are left.
So it’s about time for another bunch of information!

Main topic in this week was obviously the updated Running Order with all times!

But we also unleashed a real flood of information with releasing for example the shuttle bus schedule, Camping Site & Holy Wacken Land Maps and the opening Hours 2013

The festival is coming closer with huge steps; just about 60 days are left. So it’s about time for another bunch of information! Already some time ago, we provided you with the first version of our running order and now we can present you an updated version!

Next to some small changes, the running order now also contains the playtimes and the smaller stages.

Entire new on the running order and at the W:O:A in general is the Wacken Metal Church. Due to the 150th anniversary of Wackens church, there will be some chosen concerts and a corresponding side program inside the church this year.

You can find the running order HERE.

Also we will again publish our famous Running Order Tool in the near future. The tool allows you to create and print your personal running order.

Last but not least: Finsterforst will play in Wacken as planned!

Festival News Written 2013-05-26 22:13:26

Hello Metalheads,

it´s time for the next newsletter! This week we can confirm Anvil as next top act for this years Wacken Open Air but at the same time we also sadly have to announce the cancelation of Last in Line.

Besides the registration for this year´s W:O:A Soccercup and some holiday offers before and after Wacken Open Air we started 2 amazing raffles to celebrate the newest releases of Airbourne and Dark Tranqulity.

Last but not least you can find the newest W:O:A merchandise tips and Podcasts of Harry Metal. who was on board of this years Full Metal Cruise!

The Canadian speed metal pioneers of Anvil will play at the Wacken Open Air in 2013. It will be their third performance at the holy land. The band which was found in 1979 is a heavy influence for both thrash and speed metal, especially their early albums are often mentioned by bands like Metallica or Slayer. In this year, the band released its fifteenth studio album, called Hope in Hell. We are looking forward to a real firework of classics and brand-new hits.

More information at Billing/Bands

Last In Line performance at the Wacken Open Air cancelled
While we are able to announce Anvil, we sadly have to announce the cancellation of Last In Line for this year’s Wacken Open Air.

Big Airbourne raffle to celebrate the release of "Black Dog Barking"

Since the release of their debut "Runnin´ Wild" in 2007, the australian band Airbourne became more and more unstoppable.
With their underdog anthems they impressed not only legions of fans but also the press and music idols like Lemmy Kilmister.

On May 17th the long anticipated third album Black Dog Barking will be released.

Together with Roadrunner Records we are now raffling a big Airbourne fan package!

W:O:A Soccercup 2013

There can be only one! Also this year we are searching for the new W:O:A Soccercup Champion!

Dark Tranquillity: Raffle regarding the release of Construct

The melodic death metal machine Dark Tranquillity releases its new album Construct today! Construct is the tenth studio album of the Swedish band and was anticipated with bated breath. And they also got the first top review for this album; the German Metal Hammer placed them on the first place of their soundcheck of this month.

In time to the release of construct, we raffle 2 x 1 fan packages, each including one t-shirt and one gatefold vinyl (including a 7” bonus vinyl).

Festival News Written 2013-05-19 14:38:25

Hello Metalheads,

The next Wacken Open Air is coming closer and the countdown of missing days is already double-digit.
According to this the progress is going on and in this weeks newsletter we can present you the first version of the Running Order 2013!

Meanwhile also the festival ABC was updated and got a new comfort functionality.

Last but not least we have 2 new band announcements: Annihilator and Industrial City who won the Metal-Battle in the Caucasian Republics.

A bit more than 3 months are left, until it is time again to call Faster Harder Louder in Wacken again. And already now, we can provide you with the first and provisional version of this year's Running Order!

This first version just contains the infield-stages (Black Stage, True Metal Stage, Party Stage) and the Bullhead City Circus (W.E.T. Stage and Headbangers Stage).

As always, all subjects are about to be changed and are only meant as a rough orientation.
A running order with exact playtimes and the remaining stages will be published soon. By then, we will also provide you with printable PDFs and our popular running order tool.

Festival ABC 2013 released
As always we have to change the festival ABC a little for the new festival year. Next to the content changes, we also included a comfort function to simplify the usage of the navigation at the voluminous ABC.

Now you can use a search-function to search for catch-words which will scroll you the searched segment instantly. In addition to this, the whole content of the ABC is hidden at the start to allow a faster scrolling. All categories can be opened/closed at the click of a mouse.

RIP - Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman deceased

Today we received a sad message: Slayer guitarist and founder Jeff Hanneman died on liver failure this Thursday morning in a hospital in California.

With Jeff Hanneman the metal world is losing one of its most influential musicians.

Slayer announced the following statement via facebook:
"Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home. Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure. He is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry, and will be sorely missed.

Our Brother Jeff Hanneman, May He Rest In Peace (1964 - 2013)"

We wish all of his family, friends, fans and also the rest of the band much strength in this difficult times!

Festival News Written 2013-04-04 12:35:45

**Premiere at the Wacken Open Air - Hotel ship for Metalheads"***

Premiere at the Wacken Open Air – Hotel ship MS Wacken River Hotel will land near the festival site!

In cooperation with the travel agency KLUGES REISEN, the organizers of the Wacken Open Air, the ICS Festival Service GmbH, are offering a very special alternative to sleeping in a tent on the campgrounds at this years festival. From July 31st until August 04th 2013 metalheads will have the opportunity to sleep on a comfortable hotel ship, the MS Wacken River Hotel.

The ship is located at the Wacken Port in Hochdonn, directly at the Kiel Canal, only three kilometers away from the festival grounds. The swimming hotel has a lot to offer for the friends of heavy music. Nice cabins including a private shower and WC and a nice view of the canal. Furthermore a diverse breakfast buffet will make sure that nobody has to start their festival day hungry. After strengthening for the day, the metalheads can use the regularly scheduled bus shuttle to get to the festival area.

This strictly limited offer includes four accommodations in a comfortable outside cabin with private WC and shower, as well as the breakfast onboard and the bus shuttle to the festival site. Furthermore there will be a bus shuttle starting at the central station in Hamburg and Itzehoe which will drive directly to the landing place of the MS Wacken River Hotel in Hochdonn,

again it is time for another W:O:A newsletter! This time’s topics are:
After a short lean period, we were now able to confirm seven new bands for the Wacken Open Air 2013.
Also we uploaded the calendar sheet for March 2013, which can be downloaded as desktop wallpaper as usual and we inform you about the upcoming special Easter sale in Wacken.
Sadly we also have some bad news: Farmer Uwe is badly diseased. All details about this and the other topics can be found in this newsletter.

Yours,
W:O:A Team

7 new band confirmations

After a short lean period we like to announce the next bounce of bands for this year’s W:O:A billing.
We have seven new bands for you, which never played in Wacken before. Their musical styles ranges from traditional heavy metal through power and progressive elements to New German Hardness.

Dunderbeist - The Norwegian whiz kids are considered as one of the hottest newcomer bands from Scandinavia. They just released their third album “Songs Of The Buried” which will be used to conquer Europe for sure. And on their way to this goal, they will also enter the Wacken Open Air!

Eisbrecher - – New German Hardness at the W:O:A. After they left Megaherz and founded Eisbrecher about 10 years ago, the duo Wesselksy & Pix used to get started again – with huge success. With their fifth album, released in 2012, the band entered position 3 in the German album charts.

Kärbholz - the German rock/punk band Kärbholz was founded in 2003 and released five albums so far. Every album raises their fan base and their last album “Rastlos” made it to position 16 in the German charts.

Kryptos - the band from India was founded in 1998 and is part of the spearhead of the metal music and scene in their country. Since their establishment they released three albums which generated a lot of furor. A record deal in 2007 led to support shows for bands like Iron Maiden, Kreator, Amon Amarth and Satyricon. In 2010, they came to play some shows in Europe as the first Indian metal band ever. In 2012 they released their third album “The Coils Of Apollyon”. They play straight eighties metal inspired by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Candlemass – if you like this music, you must check ´em out!

Null DB –resulting from an under-18 school band, Null DB are striving to the top with their independent sound. You could try to categorize the band between Nu Metal and New German Hardness, but you shouldn’t draw a parallel like “they sound like…” – it will not work out. In 2008 they first attract attention when they won a German rock music award and shortly afterwards they published their first real release “Im Auge des Sturms”. By now they also released their second work “Endzeit”.

Rebattered – this band is living the metal! The band Rebattered focuses on grooving thrash metal now, after they tried some musical experiments with for example progressive elements in their beginning. Founded in 2002, the band won several band competitions and awards, played countless live-shows and released their debut EP “Wheel of Misfortune” in 2007. In 2012 they released their second EP “We Eat People” and by now they are working on their first album.

Secret Sphere – from Italy plays progressive power metal, which is often also categorized as symphonic power metal. Whatever you call the genre, the band which was founded in 1997 has the finger on the pulse. In 2012 they released their sevenths Album “Portrait Of A Dying Heart”. And in 2013 they will release a new version of their second album “A Time Never Come”.

Farmer Uwe badly diseased

Our farmer Uwe from Wacken isn’t just a real unique, but also an important character and element of the Wacken Open Air history.

By now, we got the sad message, that Uwe Trede is badly diseased. The thoughts of the whole Wacken Open Air team are with him and his family in this time. We hope for a speedy and full recovery. He is already on the way to recovery.

Cheerful greetings can be posted in the commentaries on Facebook and in our board. We will forward them to Uwe and his family.

Special Easter sale and long Thorsday on the 28th of March in Wacken

On Thursday the 28th of March there is a special Easter sale in Wacken again, the W:O:A Info Office and Battle-Merchant invite you to the next big metal shopping tour.

This time's highlight: Wacken merchandise with special discounts, fan articles and the new W:O:A 2013 collection! Everyone who brings the X-Mas sale flyer will also get a special goodie for free!!

The Full:Metal:Army – our official fan club - will also be back on spot. Inform yourself about the Full:Metal:Army and become a member!

Also the Battle-Merchant is reducing its full product range with a 11% discount because of its 11th birthday. Furthermore, every customer which buys articles with a worth of more than 20€ will get a Thor´s hammer for free!

So, let's go to Wacken!

Festival News Written 2012-12-27 15:29:13

Hello Metalheads, Christmas time has just begun and with it our yearly online X-MAS calendar! This week we already have confirmed a lot of new bands and raffled amazing prizes - All about the calendar can be found in our top news. Further there are news regarding our X-Mas voucher action with Wacken Memories, the info office in Wacken, the W:O:A Camperpark and more! Everything else as always at www.wacken.com

Since the 1st of December you have the chance to win loads of daily prizes and probably also one of our first prizes. As every year, we tried to make the calendar better than in the year before and we are convinced that we succeeded with it. Never before we had as many bands and big prizes as in this year! Besides daily changing prices every winner will get the W:O:A X-MAS Fan Package And for those who are able to figure out the big main solution we have prepared a lot of special prices such as: The Amazing Main Price A balcony cabin (all inclusive) at the Full Metal Cruise 2013! 7 nights Northern Europe & Great Britain from the 05th May to 12th May 2013 from/to Hamburg in a balcony cabin (price aproxx. 4000€) A panorama view of the cabin and all info can be found HERE A very big thank you to the TUI Cruises GmbH! (Attention! Only a few cabins are left – Book now at www.full-metal-cruise.com !) There are also several other main prices such as: Relentless desktop coolers sponsored by Relentless Energy Drink (www.relentlessenergy.com) , Motörheadphones and Mobile/i-Phone Cases (www.motorheadphones.com) Travel voucher by MetalTravel (www.metaltravel.de) Signed W:O:A Guitars Nintento 3DS - each including 2 video games Mics, headphones and other studio equipment sponsored by Rock Shop GmbH (http://rockshop.de) and a lot more! All main prizes and the sponsors (Thank you very much!) can be found by clicking the „prizes” button. And of course we will announce at least one or more bands each day for W:O:A 2013. How to participate??? The complete rules can be found in the calendar (by clicking the help button on the upper left) at www.metaltix.com.

W:O:A Camperpark 2013 - Rentable campers and tents are sold out! Also the W:O:A Camperpark can confirm sold out for some of it´s offered services. Rentable tents as well as campers are completely sold out. Power Supply for own campers and Toilet To Go (the rentable mobile toilet) are still available.

Metal artwork designer releases book There is probably no other genre, where the linkage between cover artworks and music is so important like in the metal genre. In other genres, the artists use to take pictures from their own for their covers, but metal bands like to create stunning artworks in most cases. These artworks are meant to represent either single songs or the whole album. The music and the artworks go hand in hand. One of the most important artwork artists from the metal scene is Paul Raymond Gregory, no doubt. Beside eleven album artworks for Saxon, he also created artworks for big names like Dio, Uriah Heep, Blind Guardian or the Wacken Open Air. Before he started to work with metal bands, he used to take JRR Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings to create a series of paintings about the great saga. Besides, he is one of the founders of the Bloodstock Open Air, which is an influential heavy metal festival in Great Britain. And of course he also makes the artworks for this event too. Now he released Beyond Time and Place, a printed summary of his work. 176 pages show you the magic of his 40 years of painting. The book is available both in a limited and in a normal edition. A must for all fans of sophisticated artworks! More information and the option to buy an exemplar are available here: www.paulraymondgregory.com www.studio54.co.uk

Festival News Written 2012-12-09 13:53:21

Hello Metalheads,

today it´s time for the next W:O:A newsletter.

This one is dominated by the topic NEW WACKEN MERCH. Check out our new range of merchandise - ecpecially the 2013 collection in the Full:Metal:Mini Mag.
These items will also be available at the special X-Mas sale at the Info Office in Wacken.

Further we have news regarding the Wacken Foundation and the Full Metal Cruise.

X-Mas time is coming closer and now the Full:Metal:Shop offers a new range of merchandise products.
Take a look and browse through our new Full:Metal:Shop Mini-Mag. There you can find lots of new products such as the new W:O:A 2013 collection or special X-Mas products.

We already announced that Circle II Circle will play some very special Savatage sets aboard the Full Metal Cruise.

To get you in the mood for this, here‘s an unreleased live video of ‘The Wake Of Magellan‘, recorded at this year‘s Wacken Open Air. This will be huge!

The band from Tampa, Florida featuring former Savatage singer Zak Stevens is going to perform the Savatage album “Edge Of Thoms” (1993) in it‘s entirety and a best of show of their own material alongside further material from Stevens‘ time in Savatage.

On this years’ Wacken Open Air a Fendt engine bonet has received a new design with W:O:A logo by airbrush illustrator Wolfgang Zeh and numerous artists have signed the bonet. Amongst them for example: In Extremo, Betontod, Overkill, Detlef Buck, Markus Kavka, Oomph, Mambo Kurt and Endstille.

The auction will take last for one week from Monday, 26th November until 2nd December 2012

As mentioned before, Wacken Open Air is just ahead of the Sold Out - as a big thank you for your loyalty within the last 24 years & your amazing support (as well as a little consolation for the mud we all had to put up with last August) we will present you one of the biggest band announcements we have ever made!!!

Last week we already signed that something is on the way and now the time has come - a bit earlier as planned to shorten your last working day of this week:

RAMMSTEIN

In August 2013 it will finally come true - RAMMSTEIN will conquer the True Metal Stage at Wacken with their worldwide-known unique and famous live show.

Here is the official press release of Rammstein:
“Wir halten das Tempo” will also be Rammstein’s motto for 2013, with the band headlining a number of big European festivals.
Over the past two years alone over 1.3 million people from Mexico, the USA, South Africa, Australia, Canada and Europe have been blown away by the band’s spectacular live show. The Rammstein machine keeps rolling on and on, and 2013 will be no different: it promises to be one hot summer!

We hope we served you well with this!

Stay tuned - more amazing bands will be confirmed within the course of today´s evening - visitors of the Hamburg Metal Dayz will get the info a bit earlier!

Be prepared! In Metal We Trust!

See you in Wacken, Metalheads – Rain or Shine

Tickets for Wacken Open Air are as always available at www.metaltix.com
Ticket-Hotline: +49 (0) 4627 - 18 38 38

As mentioned before, Wacken Open Air is just ahead of the Sold Out - as a big “Thank You” for the fans´ loyalty within the last 24 years we are able to present one of the biggest band announcements we have ever made!!!

In August 2013 it will finally come true - RAMMSTEIN will conquer the True Metal Stage at Wacken with their worldwide-known unique and famous live show.

Here is the official press release of Rammstein:
“Wir halten das Tempo” will also be Rammstein’s motto for 2013, with the band headlining a number of big European festivals.
Over the past two years alone over 1.3 million people from Mexico, the USA, South Africa, Australia, Canada and Europe have been blown away by the band’s spectacular live show. The Rammstein machine keeps rolling on and on, and 2013 will be no different: it promises to be one hot summer!

Festival News Written 2012-09-25 13:11:09

Hamburg Metal Dayz - supporting programme announced

The 1st Hamburg Metal Dayz offer a lot of entertainment in addition to band performances and panels: workshops, comedy, readings… Today we can announce the additional supporting programme!

GUITAR-WORKSHOP WITH ULI JON ROTH
Saturday, 22.9. – 5 PM - Markthalle

The legendary guitarist Uli Jon Roth, who is known since the 70s as a member of the Scorpions and as a solo artist, will offer a view into his special musical world, which even makes heroes such as Joe Satriani and Kirk Hammett (Metallica) fall to their knees in awe.

Author Christian Krumm is reading from his two books about the world of the heavy music. “Kumpels in Kutten” (Buddies in patched vests) tells the story of the unique metal scene in the Ruhr district of Germany, spawning legendary bands, labels, media and venues, from the 80s until today. „Century Media“ carefully examines the formation of the scene-shaping label from Dortmund. Who would be more fitting as a guest than a veteran of Metal and the Ruhr district alike? Enter Bobby Schottkowski (Hungöver, Ex-Sodom)!??

Moses W. is a stand-up comedian from Germany. On Metal Dayz´s Saturday, he is reading from his book "Das rockt!" (This rocks!). Afterwards he is playing metal-classics from AC/DC to ZZ Top acoustically with his partner „Fast“ Eddie Arndt as The Heavies. Irish Folk meets British Steel, if you will.

Till Burgwächter – passionate meat eater, frenetic soccer fan and in general a really friendly guy – has been commenting about Heavy Metal, soccer and other really important things for the last ten years in his own a sharp and comical way. His books "JGTHM - Juhr Gait tu Hewi Mettäl" (Your guide to Heavy Metal), „Schmerztöter“ (Painkiller) and "Väter, Völker und Vandalen" (Dads, nations and vandals) regularly go on reading journeys with him and attack the world. The only thing is: You have to have some humor…??

READING: VOLXBIBEL
Saturday, 22.9. - 3:30 PM - Marx (German only!)

The "Volxbibel" (The people's bible) is a reworking of the bible, done by people as part of an open source project. As a result, the language is transformed to this day and age and sounds younger. Martin Dreyer, a theologist and author, has been reading from the "Volxbibel" at this year's Wacken:Open:Air.

Further information regarding programme, bands and much more can be found under the following link:

Hamburg Metal Dayz Homepage
Hamburg Metal Dayz Facebook

Wacken-Marathon at NDR.de on the 14th and 15h of September 2012!

Wacken 2012 is history and the sale for the next festival is running at full blast. Fitting to this, our media partner NDR is going to send some more hours of footage from the Wacken Open Air 2012 today and tomorrow.

At first, there will be a broadcasting of the stunning performances from Graveyard, Leningrad Cowboys and Saxon, which were some of the highlights at this year’s Wacken Open Air, starting at 21 o’clock on the 14th of September. Subsequent to this at 0´clock on the 15th of September, the NDR will also send the documentary report „Heavy Metal trifft Karniggels”, which will take 4 additional hours of broadcasting.

The report will be guided by Thomas Buck, who is well known for his strange humor in Germany. Buck wrote and produced several cinema and television projects and is also a popular actor and director. For example he put on his mark and humor on commercials from the Flensburger beer company and his movie Karniggels from 1991 was already about the life in the countryside of northern Germany – what predestines him for the Wacken Open Air. The report will show you the strange and remarkable he experienced in Wacken, in the backstage area but also at the whole festival. You should give it a try, if you understand a little German.

The concerts and the report will also be streamed world-wide for free on at NDR.de at the same time and the will be also available afterwards online. So it is an all-round carefree package for all fans of the Wacken Open Air!

Festival News Written 2012-08-16 13:35:39

Hello Metalheads,

The W:O:A 2013 presale runs on high speed so this week provide you with the next update regarding the current ticket sale.

Further we present the a real unique special of ex-Nightwish vocalist Tarja and Pledge Music as well as news from the Hamburg Metal Dayz.

Further issues: The new "Live at Wacken 2011" DVD, W:O:A video spcials on WackenTube, streams and TV-broadcasts on ZDFkultur & NDR.de as well as the donation for the metalhead who sadly deceased during the last Wacken Open Air.

The presale for the 24th edition of Wacken Open Air, which will occur from the 1st to 3rd of August 2013 is taking up more and more speed!
After the big run for the X-Mas tickets and normal 3-Day-All-In tickets after the presale start on Monday, the demand for tickets in the second is still unbroken.

By now we can confirm that 35000 Tickets are already sold - That´s a new record high!

Herewith we want to say thank you again to all metalheads for their great support and loyalty for all the years!
And also in the next year we will present a great festival with lots of surprises and top-acts!

With bands like Deep Purple, Anthrax, Sabaton, Nightwish, Doro (30th Anniversary Show), Arch Enemy, Lingua Mortis Feat. Rage, Subway To Sally and Amorphis (plus special Acoustic Show) we have already given you a good taste of what´s awaiting you in the next amazing line-up. Further band highlights are coming soon!

The coveted original Wacken tickets are available only at www.metaltix.com or via telephone at the following number: +49 (0) 4627- 18 3838.

We want to ask you to not use Ebay, Seatwave, Viagogo and others to stop dealing with tickets! Due to the personalization we have implemented this year for the first time, the resale is definitely forbidden and will be tracked with legal actions. With this action we want to make sure that YOU - the fans - will get the tickets but not any kind of hustlers.

Detailed info about personalization can be found under FAQ´s personalization.

In metal we trust – see you in Wacken – rain or shine!

Your
W:O:A Team

Hamburg Metal Dayz - The heaviest event at the Reeperbahn Festival

Just one month is left until the 1st Hamburg Metal Dayz will open its doors as part of the “Reeperbahn Festival”.

From Sept 20th-22nd, you will get the full experience of Metal at the Markthalle Hamburg: Three days of concerts, workshops, signing sessions, expert roundtables, meet & greets, exhibitions and more!

Fans from all kinds of metal will get music of their personal taste: On Thursday´s “Progression Day” bands of the modern and heavy side of Metal like Heaven Shall Burn, Callejon and Neara will blow the audience away. On Friday we will proceed with rock and metal acts like Saxon, Audrey Horne and Dezperadoz. On Saturday bands like Doro, Betontod and Endstille will rock the audience with their performaces.

The complete line-up can be found HERE.

One day tickets will each cost 23€- There is also a limited amount of 2-Day tickets (Fr/Sa) for 39,50€ and 3-Day tickets (Thursday-Saturday) for 52,70€ available.

But the Metal Dayz are not only interesting for fans: Especially musicians and newcomer bands will get answers for questions like „Career aspirations & working in the music business“, „The future of Metal“ and „How to push your own band through the panels and roundtable discussions.

The Metal Dayz will occur in the Markthalle which belongs to the most important concert venues of the city and offeres several rooms for the many shows and activities at the Hamburg Metal Dayz. The Markthalle is located close to the main station.

ACT I in special elaborated fan packages
Donation of profits will go to Wacken Foundation
First taste of ACT I for free at Wackentube!

Tarja will release her first solo live audio and video product in her rock outfit. Via Pledge fans can purchase a very special and limited 80 and more pages photobook (including 3 - ! - DVDs and 2 CDs), a rare and limited vinyl version of the product plus many personalized Tarja gimmicks and clothing items.
The live recordings and filmings ofACT I took place in Argentina and the photobook (also referred to as "mediabook") features one full exclusive concert which cannot be purchased anywhere else than in this mediabook. A first taste of the live product is for free! Wackentube will feature a trailer which will show you a lot what the fan package will look like. Please check HERE for an astonishing look at ACT I. So worth checking it!

ATTENTION: The Pledge-campaign will end this Sunday, August 19th, thus the fan packages can only be ordered until then. So hurry up to save your version of ACT I!

No other voice and artist influenced and basically created the female fronted symphonic metal genre more than Tarja Turunen. A pioneer in Goth-, Opera and Symphonic Metal, the classically trained Finn rose to fame with the metal outfit Nightwish, whose face and voice she was for 9 years. Releasing two very successful solo albums (2007 and 2010) afterwards, awarded gold and Platinum in many countries, Tarja Turunen toured the world with her new band, including Wacken Open Air.

The last roadtrip ended in South America, where Tarja filmed and recorded ACT I. The main content was filmed and recorded this March in Rosario, Argentina, in a beautiful theatre setting. The video-products include plenty of extras – video and photo material. Besides the Pledge products, a 2CD is available in regular retail just as well as a 2DVD and Blu-Ray version.

ACT I delivers the most intense, the most personal and most intimate Tarja performances and footage so far. The artist herself admits, she “was many times ready to burst into tears.”" With the elaborate packaging, tracklisting and its extras, ACT I provides the full-fledged bill of fare to either Tarja fan. Two brand new Tarja songs will be featured on the album, one of them is the first single out of ACT I, “Into The Sun”, which can already be purchased digitally. The remaining tracklisting consists of Tarja’s greatest solo tracks, many Nightwish classics as well as some cover versions, such as “Phantom of the Opera” or marvellous Gary Moore’s “Over The Hills and Far Away” – or to make it short: a unique blend of music selection.

ACT I, as the title already suggests, is the vanguard in a sequence of live products. A successor live product is planned at a yet to be determined point of time.
While releasing ACT I, Tarja is already working on her next solo studio album.

TARJA decided to donate a share of the income out of this product to the WACKEN FOUNDATION. A great product and the foundation (dedicated to the advancement of young artists) team up for a good cause!!!

At www.tarja-act1.com fans receive first insight on the product, Tarja frequently communicates with her fans and updates her followers on the process in the Pledge campaign, the live product, etc.

Festival News Written 2012-08-12 09:53:13

Hello Metalheads,

The time after Wacken is the time before Wacken!

With these words we welcome you to the first Newsletter for W:O:A 2013!

Not even a whole week has passed since the beginning of the presale but right in this moment we have already sold more than 25000 Tickets for Wacken Open Air 2013. Read more about that in our top news.

Further we have masses of news regarding tv broadcasts and streams. Let´s begin with the 90 minutes lasting Scorpions at Wacken special from ARTE on Saturday.
Further there a tons of live streams, interviews and backstage reports from this year´s Wacken which can be watched on NDR.de and ZDFkultur,
Meanwhile our gallery and also WackenTube are filled with masses of pictures and videos from this year´s festival.

We also have news regarding Wacken Memories (the well known photobook/poster editor), the new visitor survey and last but not least the new DVD "Live at Wacken 2011" which is available since the last weekend.

The run for the tickets of the 24th edition of the biggest Heavy Metal Festival worldwide had started.
Next year the Wacken:Open:Air Festival takes place from the 1st until the 3rd of August 2013.

The 10.000 limited X-Mas Packages for W:O:A 2013 was again sold out in less than a hour! Also the regular pre-sale for the W:O:A tickets is beating all records. Already now there are 25.000 tickets for W:O:A 2013 sold.

By now there are some high class acts for Wacken 2013 confirmed which definitely will make W:O:A become a gigantic party:

Started with bands like Deep Purple, Anthrax, Sabaton, Nightwish, Doro (30th Anniversary Show), Arch Enemy, Lingua Mortis Feat. Rage, Subway To Sally und Amorphis (plus special Acoustic Show) we promise again one of the best line-up´s in history of the Wacken Open Air!

Herewith we want to say thank you to all metalheads for the great support and the faithfulness and loyalty for years. The 23rd Wacken Open Air was a huge success and the most peaceful party of the year.
Again in 2013 we will present a great festival with lots of surprises.

The coveted original Wacken tickets are available only at www.metaltix.com or via telephone at the following number: +49 (0) 4627- 18 3838.

We want to ask you not using Ebay, Seatwave, Viagogo and others to stop dealing with tickets! Due to the personalization we have implemented this year for the first time, the resale is definitely forbidden and will be tracked with legal actions. With this action we want to make sure that YOU - the fans - will get the tickets but not any kind of hustlers.

Detailed info about personalization can be found under FAQ´s personalization

In metal we trust – see you in Wacken – rain or shine!

Your

W:O:A Team

W:O:A Memories 2012

The Wacken Open Air is over and for sure a lot of you shot dozens of pictures during the festival. Regardless of whether it be campgrounds, the beer garden or the Wackinger Village - Nice motives can be found everywhere!
So what is better than presenting you personal festival memories in a photobook in official Wacken layout or as high quality poster or canvas prints? Right - nothing!

Corresponding to this we also offer W:O:A Memories in this year again!

You can use this editor (created together with our partner Jenomics) to print your favorite self-taken pictures or the pictures from our official festival photographers in, for example, the W:O:A Memories photo books (the layout for 2012 will be released shortly after the festival) or choose from several different products and layouts to create complete unique products.

As if that wasn't already enough we have prepared a special gift for you – Each customer which enters a special voucher code during the payment process will get a discount of 5€ on his order. (Minimum order 20€) This code is: wacken

Further info plus a short step by step instruction can be found in our specials corner under W:O:A Memories or directly at the Wacken Memories Landingpage

Festival News Written 2012-08-01 13:51:39

Hello metalheads,

the newsletter of today begins with an important message regarding the travel to Wacken.

Due to the bad weather we had to change the earliest day of arrival from Monday to Tuesday - Read more in our top-news.

Further issues are the lottery and on side actions of out sponsors of Relentless and Captain Morgan.

IMPORTANT ACTUAL ARRIVAL INFORMATION!!! Early Arrivals on MONDAY are definately NOT POSSIBLE. There are no surrogate campgrounds available!

Dear Metalheads,

due to the actual weather situation (partial more than 50 liter/m² rain in one hour) we have a special request to you:

DUE TO THE HEAVY RAIN AN EARLY ARRIVAL IS NOT POSSIBLE BEFORE TUESDAY, 31ST OF JULY - THE SAME GOES FOR PEOPLE TRAVELLING WITHOUT OWN VEHICLE. IF POSSIBLE PLEASE TRAVEL BY BUS AND TRAIN WICH ENSURE A COMFORTABLE AND SAFE ARRIVAL.

To guarantee us, but ESPECIALLY YOU a smooth festival we are depending on your cooperation.

The grounds are completely soaked at the moment and CAN’T be frequented by automobiles. Unfortunately, more rain is announced for this weekend.

The whole team is working at full speed at the dewatering and preparation of the grounds, to enable the camping at the automobiles and to afford you the best possible camping grounds. The weather outlook for the festival time is better, but every day counts to get the grounds dry, so that they will sustain the festival time, which is of-course in everyone's interest. But this contains, that the campgrounds have to be blank as long as possible and that they can’t be frequented by car or foot.

Please use the attractive travel offers with bus and train , more info in our travel portal

We hope and request your cooperation and we are sure that you will understand and support us, to make the W:O:A the most awesome metal party of the year again.
Otherwise we would probably unfortunately be forced to separate camping and parking!

All workers which are setting up the W:O:A are anyhow in cheerful spirits and we are looking forward to welcome you as of Wednesday, when we will say again:

Faster:Harder:Louder – See you in Wacken Metalheads – Rain or Shine!!!

„Welcome To The Family” – Relentless arranges for some great moments at the Meet & Greet Area again!

Great and unforgettable encounters are to take place at this year’s W:O:A Meet & Greet Area again. And once more, we are pleased to inform you that our partner Relentless is gonna pimp our meeting center for some special metal-moments.
An imperative must see at the Artist Lounge above the Meet & Greet is of course Tom Solo’s special exhibit “Headbangers Call”. His highly expressive photographs can burn into your mind like a tattoo…

To win your exclusive access to this lounge with free drinks included, drop us a mail with the subject: Meet & Greet and your full name to Relentless@wacken.com

However, our metal mates Relentless don’t take half-measures, as we know, just like us.
Along these lines… Let there be Rock!

MEET & GREET PAGE - CLICK HERE)

Ahoy, land lovers! Be aware: The Captain is hijacking Wacken

You think you’re true rockers? Okay, so prove it and defend your honour!

Captain Morgan is not only coming to Wacken for the festival, but to test your seaworthiness. If you’re brave enough, you’ll be rewarded: the buccaneer is not just bringing along his charming Morganettes but also a load of surprises. There’s one secret we can reveal in advance: You’ll be protected from the sun in style.

Just look for the red flags in the festival area which the Captain has put up especially for you, and obey the orders of the hero of the Carribean.

But don’t be afraid, Captain Morgan has a heart for his crew. He has even revealed that he will share his Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold® with you. You can enjoy his favourite drink Captain & Cola outside all Edeka Wacken supermarkets and of course across the entire Wacken festival area. But don’t forget the Captain’s orders: please drink responsibly!

So, crew, fingers crossed that you carry out the orders of Captain Morgan and we’re looking forward to hijacking Wacken together with the buccaneer of the high seas!

Interactive festival area map is online

As known from the last years, we have created a new interactive festival area map also in this year.
Click on the point of interest (for example stages) and get all info like opening hours, running order and area info.

You can find the interactive map under Maps

Festival News Written 2012-08-01 13:48:50

Hello Metalheads,

The preparations for W:O:A 2012 are going into crunch mode and only a few days are left until the festival begins!
Also on other frontlines the planning goes on: This week we are proud to announce the 1. Hamburg Metal Dayz which will occur in the course of Hamburgs Reeperbahn Festival.

Further topics in this newsletter regarding new specials at this year´s Wacken Open Air we don´t want to hold back any longer:
These topics are the W:O:A video countdown, the Wacken Foundation Camp, The Relentless Energy Drink Flashpoint and the main prizes for this year´s winner of the Metal-Battle.

From September 20th to 22nd, about 20 bands from the heavier range of music will play at the Markthalle, among them Heaven Shall Burn, Doro, Saxon, Callejon , Endstille, Betontod and Kill Devil Hill. There will be panels and roundtable discussions, where music business insiders share their knowledge and discuss topics like „Career aspirations & working in the music business“, „The future of Metal“ and „How to push your own band“. The fans can meet the artists, and therewill be exhibitions, readings, comedy and workshops for musicians.

This makes the first Hamburg Metal Dayz an entertaining and valuable forum for music fans, up-and-coming rockers and business veterans. An updated schedule of bands and activities can be found at www.hamburg-metal-dayz.de.

In spring 2013 we will set sail and start for the first Full Metal Cruise! Some days ago the presale had started. So have a look in the newsletter to find out more about the Full Metal Cruise and its presale.

Moreover we had collected the latest news for you! Besides others you can find information about the Masters Of Comedy, new Updates and news about the Metal Battle winner Germany in the newsletter.

Space on Europe‘s biggest Heavy Metal Cruise is limited, however: Around 2000 metalheads will be aboard the Mein Schiff 1 from Hamburg via Southampton, Le Havre and Amsterdam back to Hamburg. There will be concerts on board and on land, while Full Metal Drinks and a wide choice of meals are included with the cruise price!

There‘s also an early bird special: Be quick and show the world that you will be joining as the first 500 guests receive exclusive Full Metal Cruisader Shirt! !

More info about the journey can be found HERE

For answers to frequently asked questions, please refer to the FAQ section. If you need to know anything else, just contact us!

Join the cruise, Metalheads!

Masters of Comedy 2012

Fat King Konrad presents new MASTERS OF COMEDY shows at WACKEN OPEN AIR 2012!

Ahoi, Metalheads! The FULL METAL CRUISE will finally set sails in 2013.

Be prepared for the first and the biggest Metal Cruise in Europe: From 5th to 12th of May 2013, the FULL METAL CRUISE brings the real festival feeling to the sea.

The FULL METAL CRUISE starts in Hamburg and enters the harbors of Southampton (UK), Le Havre (F) and Amsterdam (NL). After 7 days full of sea & relaxing and Metal & party feeling, the ship then returns to Hamburg with a special show at the harbor anniversary fest.
Whilst there will be big fireworks and a special show on onboard, the cruise will return to the harbor and this will be one of the many things leading to a great overall experience for every metal-sailor!

The special features of this Metal Cruise:
- Drinks and food are included
- No difficult travelling to the starting point - Hamburg, the gateway to the world!
- Concerts take place onboard and onshore
- Interesting shore excursions for every metal-heart

More than 20 high-quality bands from the Metal and Rock scene will perform on 3 stages at the Mein Schiff 1. Certainly there will be everything which provides you with festival fun onboard: Meet & Greets, Metal Karaoke, movie nights, metal comedy, workshops for musicians and much more.
In the many lounges onboard, the metalheads can party and meet the artists – nowhere else it is possible to have such a direct connection to the musicians.
Furthermore, Metalheads can book shore excursions with more concerts at the harbors. The line up of the shows at the seaports and onboard of the cruise will be announced soon. You can find more information about this Heavy Metal Cruise at www.full-metal-cruise.com.

“Heavy and hard music and a cruise don’t conflict with each other”, says Wacken boss Thomas Jensen. “With the FULL METAL CRUISE we want to bring a real Metal festival to the sea!”

On this seven days FULL METAL CRUISE, the food and drinks are included alongside with the floating festival program: drinks such as beer, wine and softdrinks are free of charge at all times, from 18 o´clock on also most of the spirituous beverages and cocktails will be for free. In addition, there is no need to pay for the food in most of the restaurants onboard.

Attention: The tickets for this very special festival are limited to an amount of 2000. The quick ones can show the whole world that they will attend the cruise: the first 500 metal sailors will receive an exclusive Full Metal Cruise Shirt!

Finally the Running Order including times for which many of you have been waiting for is online.
Soon the well-tried Running Order Tool will also be online - the printable Running Order pdf will as always follow in July.

The entire information about the W:O:A Running Order 2012 can be found at the link below!www.wacken.com

IMPORTANT!!! Subject to be changed

As already said the Holy Wacken Land maps are also available online!

Apply for the W:O:A Festival Diary and film your visit to Wacken 2012!

You’re travelling to Wacken Open Air 2012 and enjoy recording your experiences on video? Then you can help us in the production of a documentary this year! You’ll receive a digital camcorder that you can use to film your journey and stay at W:O:A 2012. In addition, you’ll receive an exclusive T-shirt reserved only for Festival Diary participants. You can keep the camcorder and limited edition T-shirt by way of thanks for your participation!

Interested? Then fill out the form by 18 July, 2012 (midnight) stating your name, address and telephone number to the form under WOA FESTIVAL DIARY

Please include brief answers to the following questions:
a. What day are you planning to arrive and when are you heading back home?
b. What mode of transport will you be using?
c. What is the size of your group?
d. How old are you?
e. What is your current occupation?
f. What is your highest school / higher education qualification?

Conditions:
- You already have a ticket for W:O:A 2012.
- You will not be departing before 29 July, 2012, so that we can send the camcorder to you in time.
- You will enjoy making and are prepared to provide us with video material at least one hour and a maximum of two hours long (otherwise, the camcorder and T-shirt must be returned to us). You will receive guidelines from us in advance.

As we only require a limited amount of participants for the project, we regret that we are unable to consider all applications. However, we will contact you soon after the selection of participants to inform you whether you have been chosen.

Fill out the form under WOA FESTIVAL DIARY

Many thanks for your participation in advance!
Your W:O:A Team

W:O:A travel tool

Today we want to refer again on our new travel tool which is enthusiastically used since it´s launch.

Here you will find all information regarding the travel to Wacken (no matter if it´s with bus, train, car or plane) bundled in one section.
The main special is the integrated W:O:A route planer - By entering your city into the search box of the integrated route planner you will get a list with all travel options (like official travel partners or rides) near to your hometown.

It´s getting dirty! AXE Festival Shower at Wacken!

Which festival visitor does not know this problem?

You are standing in the crowd, listen to your favorite bands - the sun is burning, the moshpit is in full swing and the omnipresent dust cloud does not ease the sweat problem. So what would be better after the concert than walking a few paces, cool down and reenter the fray with a good smell? NOTHING!

The Solution: The AXE FESTIVAL SHOWER

The famous deodorant / shower gel producer AXE is on festival tour and will also visit this year´s Wacken Open Air.
Thanks to 8 big shower cabins which are directly on the festival area you will have the possibility to directly leave the moshpit and take a shower.

Close to the beginning of the festival there will be a Warm Up Party in Siegburg on 6th July 2012.
The two bands Drone and Perzonal War which are about to release their new CDs and the special guest Accuser are going to entertain you through the night!
This event will take place in the Kubana, Zeithstraße 100 in Siegburg and the doors will be opened at 7 pm.
Furthermore there will be an after show party and a lottery for all the visitors where you can win e.g. tickets for Helstar, Graveworm, Tribute to the Gods or Völkerball – this is the place to be on 6th July!

The W:O:A pole-sitting contest goes into the second round!
The ones who can stand the longest time on a pole will receive a W:O:A VIP-Upgrade. Like in the last year, four companies (Woodbrass, Washburn, Marshall and Randall) will take sponsorship for one pole each. For every hour you have been sitting on the pole they are going to donate € 10 to the Wacken Foundation. The Foundation is a charitable organization, which deals in the request of the Wacken Open Air promoters, while supporting young metal bands.

As a feature in this year there will be one pole for people who would like to take a picture or shortly enjoy the view. For a little donation you may take place on one of the poles.

Bullhead City Wrestling 2012

Also this year there will be wrestling shows at Wacken - this time inside the new established Bullhead City Circus!

Also host Martin "The Crusher" Ruder will be there again and sends you the following statement to get you in the mood for the upcoming fights!

"Thank you so much WACKEN, for the great response you are giving us during the Wrestling Shows in the BULLHEAD CITY CIRCUS!

The fantastic atmosphere you are creating live at our shows is unbelievable. 2012 is the 4th year now that we run the Wrestling at the W.O.A.
Every year more and more Metalheads are checking us out to have a good time and to see top names of the Wrestling scene, but also crazy freaks, all giving a 100 % and delivering a tough show for you.”

The whole announcement is available online!

Wacken:Open:Air Mobile App 2012 is released!

As promised; there will be a new version of the proven Wacken apps for Android devices and iPhones this year.

Important: This is no update, but a brand new app. You have to uninstall the Wacken 2011 app first!
You can find the new app HERE by now!

The app fro i-phones can be found at the iTunes Store

Find all information about the mobile app in detail online!

Official Wacken Ring and Pendant

Hi Wackener! Rob Lazell here.
I would like to inform you all that the official W:O:A Ring and Pendant is on sale at WACKEN PLAZA in the near of WACKINGER VILLAGE this year so if you´re interested please come past my stand as I am there personally, also with many more items.
I am from England and I love Wacken and the atmosphere so I hope to see you in Wacken.

The new opening hours pdf including all schedules for Infield, forecourts, the new Bullhead City Circus and Thrash Of The Titans Field as well as all other areas within the festival grounds is now online. You can download it as colored or printer friendly monochrome version.

Summary of the livechat at the 24th of May, 2012

The livechat at the 24th of May 2012 was a huge success – we were able to answer a lot of questions from the community and got new suggestions. Thank you for that! We will organize another chat soon.

The following summary is meant to give the information to all the visitors, which couldn’t participate in the livechat. This information should be interesting for all visitors. To enable a better readableness, we merged the questions and answers and reworded them, without touching the meaning.

The Wackinger Village 2012 - The Big Middle-Age Event at Wacken!

After the last year success of the medieval event The Wackinger at the W:O:A, there will be again about 240 vikings, knights and role players "raiding" the Wacken Open Air.

Ruined Soul – WackenTube video premiere for the song “Rewind” on Tuesday

On Tuesday the 5th of June there was a new video world premiere on WackenTube!

Ruined Soul from Gothenborg, Sweden had released the music video for the track "Rewind".

The song was taken from their album "My Dying Day" which was released back in April 2010 and is the second music video from the album.

The video was shot March 16, and was once again filmed by Greenworks ( www.greenworks.se )

Reception (IMPORTANT)
… is available everywhere in perimeter of the W:O:A WLAN Hotspots marked on the Campingsite-Plan (COMING SOON!). On the camping-site you can recognize them by the WLAN Hotspot Sign/Banner.

Welcome to THE ELECTRIC HOTEL.
The Mobile Powerstation. The Communication Platform. The Piece of Art.

THE ELECTRIC HOTEL is the oasis for power-hungry electric nomads. Here you can recharge your mobile device, be it phone, camera or other, with 100% renewable energy. An old american Airstream-Trailer that has been converted into a hotel reception offers space for up to 400 devices to be charged with electricity that has been generated using only wind and sun - in a secure and very charming way. You do not even need to bring your own charging cord; the professional staff on board has adapters for almost any kind of mobile phone right there.

This is already the second time THE ELECTRIC HOTEL makes a tour stop at WACKEN OPEN AIR. After the huge success in 2011, we bring along even more modules for you to watch, try and awe at. Of course, the Generator Bike will be there, allowing one person to generate power for up to ten others, that in return have to keep the pedalists spirit up. Or our Electric Campfire, where you can plug in your own adapter to charge, in case you need a quick fill-up, and meet up with other festival guests. And there is more, including an animation film program and a brand new, still secret major new way to generate electricity Rock'n'Roll-Style.

As last year, THE ELECTRIC HOTEL will support the WACKEN FOUNDATION with part of the generated income.

Time to start practicing the Electric Salute...

Parking and camping regulations 2012 online

o ensure safety, order and peaceful relations on the camping areas, each visitor has to act appropriately so that no one is harmed, threatened, harassed or molested.

The most important regulations can be found in our Parking- and Camping regulations (updated to 2012) which can be inspected from now on.

Festival News Written 2012-05-30 10:53:16

Hello metalheads,

This week we got a lot of news for you - so we are proud to announce the winner of this years Metal Masters competition.
Next issue is our survey about personalized tickets. Furthermore the Duhorn pharmacy in Wacken had announced its opening hours during the festivals days. Check it out in the newsletter.
Addtional news regarding the Metal-Battle, the Trash of The Titans Field and the refurbishment of the raiba-Tower can also be found in this newsletter.
And last but not least we want to inform you about a nice raffle we did together with Impericon. On their homepage you can win a W:O:A guitar signed by Heaven Shall Burn!

The final voting of this year´s W:O:A Metal Masters Competition (energised by Relentless Energy Drink) is over and here we go with the announcement of the winner!

We granted you almost 3 months of time to vote your favorite bands to the top and just about 100 bands participated during the first voting period.
Three of them made it to the final voting period which started on the 1st of May. These bands were Mythika, GOD and Winterstorm.

Until yesterday these bands fought a head-to-head race to gain the highly coveted live slot at this year´s Wacken Open Air.

As in the last year the winner was not determined by the number of votes but by the average rating.

However - There can only be one! With a small majority of points WINTERSTORM left it´s competitors GOD and Mythika behind and gained the well deserved victory and therewith the title W:O:A METAL MASTER 2012!

Survey regarding personalized Tickets

Dear Metalheadz,

The rip-off with the resale of tickets on the black market is getting worse and worse. Increasingly tickets are being bought by black marketeers only with the purpose of selling them on to Metalheadz for outrageous prices in order to cash on the difference as own profit. Despite all efforts of protecting tickets against counterfeiting – more and more counterfeit tickets enter circulation. We want to do something against this rip-off. An effective method against black-market trade and ticket counterfeiting is a personalisation of tickets.

Wacken Open Air 2012 Spotify playlist

For the first time ever, the Wacken Open Air offers you the possibility to get to know the great number of bands which will play at the festival better, without searching the bands and songs by hand for several hours. Our new playlist at the popular music streaming service Spotify contains multiple songs from nearly all the performers which will play on our stages this year.

Our interest and purpose is to make it easier for you to discover new bands which you didn’t know so well before. If you like a bands song, you just need one click to get more songs and also whole albums of this band. And off course you will also enjoy some of your favorite bands and songs while listening to the playlist. And you can also use it to get in the right mood for the upcoming festival!

Spotify is a streaming service where you can listen to music legal and for free, in a high quality and without delays. You just need a Facebook account and the free Spotify software to use Spotify.

We are looking forward to your comments and suggestions about the Wacken Open Air 2012 playlist and have fun at listening to it.

Festival News Written 2012-05-14 13:21:23

Hello metalheads,

This week we want to give you the status quo about the W:O:A Metal Masters 2012. The finalists are certain and the second voting period already had started. Find out more about the Metal Masters by reading on!

Moreover there are news about the brandnew Thrash Of The Titans Field, the new shuttle bus schedule for Wacken 2012 as well as News from the Full:Metal:Army - the official W:O:A Supporters Club.

The first stage of the W:O:A Metal Masters is over now. Overall more than 90 bands uploaded their videos to get the chance to play live at the W:O:A 2012. After the end of the first voting we can now announce the three finalists. And here they are:

On the 1st of Mai 2012 the final voting had started. The three finalists which you elected can use the remaining time to mobilize their fans once again or to win new supporters. The final voting will end on the 21th of Mai 2012 and then we will elect the winner of this year, which will play on the Wacken Open Air in this summer!

Thrash Of The Titans Field – Experience The End of Time

For all those who can´t get enough of heat on the festival we have something special:
The THRASH OF THE TITANS FIELD

Fitting to the year 2012 you will experience the end of time. From fire- or tesla shows to titanic robots to futuristic end time warriors here you´ll get them all! As a pendant to the Wackinger village the visitor will be thrown directly into a MAD MAX inspired future ambient to experience how mankind defies the physical forces.

A whole army of specialist, sci-fi artists and metal construction artists will bring the THRASH OF THE TITANS FIELD to life in 2012.

Full:Metal:Army - Founding of the association

Dear members of Full:Metal:Army

..it is done.
The association Full:Metal:Army was founded in April 2012. Actually we are waiting for the official entry in the register of associations. The managing board consists of your known contact person Ralph Klenk and Fine Wolff.
During the next weeks we will send the application of membership and all important information to you. Moreover we will give you a short preview about the upcoming F:M:A activities.

Until then we wish you all the best,
Ralph & Fine

W:O:A 2012 - Shuttle bus schedule is online

The new shuttle bus schedule which is providing you with the complete arrival and departure times from Itzehoe to Wacken and back is now online.

You can download them either as coloured or black/white version in PDF format.

Festival News Written 2012-04-26 12:08:55

Hallo Metalheads,

welcome to the next edition of the W:O:A newsletter - top issue of today is the new festival alphabet 2012. Here you´ll find answers to almost all questions about the festival.

Further we have news regarding new bands, soccer cup, camping for handicapped persons as well as a big raffle.

Want to find out more than just read further...

Detailed information, alls bands and news can be found as always on www.wacken.com

yours
W:O:A team

W:O:A festival alphabet is online!

The festival Alphabet 2012 is online now. There you´ll find answer to most of your questions about Wacken Open Air sorted alphabetically.

Please note that our Festival ABC is constantly being updated and extended. Therefore, regularly check up on it!!!

Paradise Lost - fan boxes raffle

During the upcoming release of the new Paradise Lost album Tragic Idol we will raffle three strictly limited fan boxes in co-operation with Century Media in the colors white, blue and gold. There are only 200 copies of each color available – so they are an absolute rarity! The features of this box differ from ordinary special editions, so it is a must have for all real Paradise Lost fans!

Tragic Idol will be released on the 20th of April and orientates itself stylistically at Iron and Draconian Times, which are both classified as milestone of gothic metal. The magazines Metal Hammer, Sonic Seducer & Legacy promptly chose the new album as their album of the month. So we have to expect a big thing coming! The band was found in 1988 and begun with grim death and doom metal. Their second album Gothic, which was released in 1991, is considered as the defining influence for the whole gothic metal genre and as the big breakthrough of the band. Paradise Lost continued to experiment and in the late 90s era they intensified added electric elements to their music. At last the album Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us was released in 2009 and was also orientated at Iron and Draconian Times like Tragic Idol, but is was also filled with experiments as usual.

After the discussions of the last weeks and months regarding the issue “camping for people with handicap” we´re now able to announce the final regulations for the campground for handicapped people. We also want to tell you about all the inventions like new wheelchair platforms and the extended range of sanitary facilities for handicapped people, just to name a few.

The whole description can be found in our info corner under the following LINK

We hope that we have served you well with this.

Yours
W:O:A team

W:O:A Soccercup 2012 - registration starts on 1st June

"Also this year the Soccercup will take place at the W:O:A.
The winner team will get the inofficial title of the Soccer-Metalchampion.
As from 1st June 2012 you can register for the cup at the page of the
W:O:A Soccercup.

As every year you can win attractive awards and lots of fun.

You will find here or in the forum all further information like game
mode, play time etc.

W:O:A Soccercupteam & Metal Train"

Festival News Written 2012-04-18 11:04:25

Hello Metalheads,

todays newsletter top priority issue is regarding the innovations for the campground for handicapped persons.

Additionally there are a lot of new bands in our billing as well as news about our Warm Up Parties. A link to the new Saxon podcast regarding their Wacken live DVD is also included.

Back in October we already gave a statement regarding the situation of the campground for handicapped people.
We want to thank all of you people who supported us with their opinions, ideas and hints In advance!

Basically Wacken Open Air is always interested into the optimization of the service for our audience with the goal to offer the best possible service. So we have worried a lot about how to grant an almost barrier-free festival experience for visitors with handicap. That means as barrier-free as a festival event allows it. Our intention is to grant the highest possible integration and inclusion into the festival. That means no separation for people with handicaps or a special treatment to every other festival visitor – in accordance with the integration idea of the metal community and the Wacken Open Air. This is also in line with tenor of feedback we received from you after W:O:A 2011 and in the course of the last months.

So now we want to inform you about the innovations for W:O:A 2012:
- There will be again a reserved Campground in close distance to the festival area for all people with a B in their handicapped ID - that means the ID that makes clear this person is dependent to an accompanying person. Wacken Open Air makes no difference between various handicaps or classes. But especially this area shall make a barrier-free as possible stay at the festival possible. Above all we speak about people with significant restrictions in their possibilities of moving (f.e. people depending on a wheelchair). Beforehand the only option left to the Wacken Open Air is to check this by reference of the information of the handicapped ID

- A personalized reservation will NOT occur

- If you want to use this service just get in contact with the stewards on the entrance to the camping area. They will accordingly guide your way to the handicapped area.

- It is possible to take a maximum of 4 other persons with you on the campground. Due to organizational reasons your friends have to travel and arrive together with you. A later arrival is definately not possible.

- We also grant a sufficient range of sanitary facilities like toilets and shower cabins at our sanitary camps for handicapped people who do not want to utilize the separated camping ground and wish a complete integration/ inclusion into the festival. The key will be handed out at the pay booth on presenting the handicapped ID to the personal. As a result people are no more dependent on a separated campground.

- For the first time there will be a tribune for guests with handicap on the festival forecourt. This tribune grants a perfect sight on all of the 3 main stages of the infield. It will be also is equipped with monitors which broadcast the whole concerts.

- Additionally we will install disablity-friendly toilets between the main entrance and the party stage entrance on the festival infield.

- Also there will be an additional handicapped podest within the Bullhead City Circus.

We hope that we can reach a highest possible barrier-free event characterized by integration and inclusion to all people visiting the festival.
We are looking forward to welcome you again in August when it´s said again:

Faster:Harder:Louder

See you in Wacken Metalheads – rain or shine

Festival News Written 2012-04-01 06:00:14

W:O:A Newsletter KW 12

Hello metalheads,

Today we reveal the secret about the new location of the W.E.T Stage and the new Headbanger´s Stage and introduce the new Bullhead City Circus. Also the W:O:A 2012 Running Order is online since last week! As in past years the provisional Running Order will be supplemented continuous in the next weeks. Find all information about in the newsletter

Moreover we want to give you a short update of the W:O:A Metal Masters 2012. Find all news in detail and how you can join the Metal Masters in the newsletter!

During the last year we thought a lot about improving the stage situation and took all the positive critics and ideas which have been forwarded to us by you.

Certainly you have noticed about the Headbanger´s Stage by sighting the provisional running order. We´ll we think now it´s time to release this secret for you

From this year on there will be a new, much bigger Bullhead City Tent – BULLHEAD CITY CIRCUS!

We talk about an 8 pylon pagoda tent - with an area of roundabout 6350m², one of the biggest mobile tents worldwide.
With a size of 110 meters length and 60 meters width this titan of a tent will from now on be from the new home of the newly established Headbanger´s Stage as well as our well known W.E.T. Stage. Both stages are standing side by side – only separated by the wrestling ring in the center – and will be played alternate. So there will be no intersections between these 2 stages.

Now we can give the artists playing on these stages an area for presentation that we aspired for a long time and which they deserve.
Sound intersections with the main stages also shouldn´t be expected anymore.

Now sadly to say we have to take leave from our good old Headbanger´s Ballroom Tent which is going into its well deserved retirement. With this action we answer the calls of the people who wanted more space in front of the W.E.T. Stage.
Further advantages are: More space in front of the stage, no more mud/dust landscape, no more crowding and lines of people waiting at the entrance, which sadly caused a lot of problems especially on Wednesday and Thursday in the past and last but not least the better acclimation caused by the height of the new tent – that means no stuffy air anymore.

Oil catching and Miss Wet T-Shirt contest belong to the past. Besides specials like Spoken Word, Air Guitar Contest and our good old Wrestling show now the music inside the Bullhead City Circus get´s the major priority.

The position has also changed: The Bullhead City Circus is no more on the Wacken Plaza but on a newly acquired area at campground C.
An additional result of the missing of the old Headbanger´s Tent will be that all concentration on the Infield goes to Black-, True - and Party Stage as well as there will be more space for the audience in front of the stages. The path´s between Bullhead City Circus and Infield will remain short.

For all those who can´t imagine such a big tent, maybe this presentation video could do a little help:

BULLHEAD CITY CIRCUS

Also a bit of the new inner life of the Bullhead City Circus shall be revealed to you now – THE ALCHEMY BAR:

THE ALCHEMY BAR

We hope that we have served you well with this and are looking forward to your reactions and critics after the festival!

Your
W:O:A-Team

Provisional Running Order is online

The provisional Running Order is now online. Get an overview of the time schedule and make sure don´t missing one of your favorite bands.

Missing bands will be announced soon!

Festival News Written 2012-03-13 13:54:12

Hello metalheads,

Last week we had announced the start of W:O:A Metal Masters 2012! The online video voting provides the chance for young bands to win a live slot at W:O:A 2012. Find the eligibility requirements and further information about the 3rd round of Metal Masters in the newsletter!

Moreover there are news about the “W:O:A Warm Up Party”. Here we had announced 3 more dates. Find also the new W:O:A Wallpaper in the newsletter!

The video online voting for metal bands (whether with or without a record deal, newcomer or part of the metal scene since years) starts in a few days. Participating bands will get their chance to compete for a slot at Wacken 2012 and also the possibility to show their music to a huge mass of users.

Interested bands can upload their video from the 5th of March to the 29th of April 2012 at www.wackentube.com. The 3 leading bands will compete into the final voting which will begin on the 1st of May and ends on the21st of may 2012.

The winner band will get the unique possibility to present their music to a huge audience at the Wacken Open Air 2012.

Djerv - it`s aggressive rock, borderline metal and dangerously catchy! The Norwegian newcomer band Djerv is going to rock the Wacken:Open:Air 2012 for the first time! As foretaste for their show in Wacken you should listen to Djerv´s debut album. It banged in like a bolt!

The power duo BugGirl will invite everyone to party at W:O:A 2012! Amber and Clinno are going to bring their newest album with them to present it live on stage in Wacken. See BugGirl live in summer 2012.

In August 2012 Blaas Of Glory are again going to hit the road for Wacken:Open:Air! With their special sound of music Blaas Of Glory brings back hard rock to its absolute essence.

And last but not least the Austrian Ska-Band Russkaja will play in Wacken again. With their headstrong and atmospheric music Russkaja will enter the stage in summer.

Djerv - it`s aggressive rock, borderline metal and dangerously catchy! The Norwegian newcomer band Djerv is going to rock the Wacken:Open:Air 2012 for the first time! As foretaste for their show in Wacken you should listen to Djerv´s debut album. It banged in like a bolt!

The power duo BugGirl will invite everyone to party at W:O:A 2012! Amber and Clinno are going to bring their newest album with them to present it live on stage in Wacken. See BugGirl live in summer 2012.

In August 2012 Blaas Of Glory are again going to hit the road for Wacken:Open:Air! With their special sound of music Blaas Of Glory brings back hard rock to its absolute essence.

And last but not least the Austrian Ska-Band Russkaja will play in Wacken again. With their headstrong and atmospheric music Russkaja will enter the stage in summer.

All further information and a summery of all Warm Up-dates you can find here!

Group reservations will not be offered in 2012

After long discussions and due to deliberation with our crew, the group reservation service for groups off 50 people won’t be available anymore. This is, among others, caused by the following reasons:

- In the previous years the staff again and again became insulted, people spit on them and threat them with violence.
- No personal agrees to take care of this area at the moment
- Groups which signed in came with a notable lesser number of persons than they signed up or used more ground than they were entitled.

This abuse of the group reservation service can’t be tolerated anymore, because for example, we had to rent additional camping grounds in last minute. This service was always costless and offered by our good will. Sadly some things went wrong, as mentioned above, so we had to make this step. Please arrange yourselves early enough and plan your arrival, as far as practicable, together, so you can continue to camp together.

Of course we still have an open mind for constructive suggestions and ideas about how we can keep the service alive.

Festival News Written 2012-02-27 13:30:07

Hello metalheads,

There are news about the W:O:A Metal Battle! Croatia and Faroe Islands will attend the Metal Battle in 2012 for the first time. Both had sent some greetings you can find in the newsletter!

Furthermore there are news about Toilet To Go – the service where you can rent your own portable festival toilet and RENT YOUR TENT – for camping and tent renting!

Croatia is (besides Serbia, BiH and Macedonia) one of the 4 countries which are promoting the semifinals for the Metal-Battle Ex-SFRJ Republics.
The local team worked really hard to show the rest of the Metal-World, what their metal scene is made of. On the 18th of February the Croatian semi-final will take place at the Boogaloo Club in Zagreb.

Like their colleagues from Faroe Islands the promoter team shot a nice video report, introducing themselves and the participating bands to the Metal-Battle family and the rest of the metal world. Have fun while watching!

Faroe Islands

With the Faroe Islands more Nordic men will reinforce the Metal-Battle!
The small group of islands which is situated in the center of the triangle between Great Britain, Iceland and Norway has a population of about 50.000 people.
That doesn´t sound much in the beginning but the descendants of the Vikings have plenty to offer on good quality metal which was already proofed by their fellow countrymen of Týr.

Also the promoters of Metal-Battle Faroe Islands have recorded a little video message - introducing themselves, their country and the local metal scene. Have fun while watching!

And here is our next special regarding camping equipment. Many of you took part in our Metal Mobile WC action but missed the opportunity to get one of them due to the big run on the toilets . But now we have the perfect alternative for all who can´t abandon on their personal toilet: Toilet to Go – the portable festival toilet!

Our partner “Camperpark Wacken” offers a rental service for portable toilets.
These toilets can now be booked online – including a 20 liter canister, toilet paper, toilet brush, a biologically degradable product of decomposition.
(Additionally you can book a toilet-tent with headroom)

For all of those who didn’t got any of the metal mobile Wc´s this may be the perfect alternative.

RENT YOUR TENT

For all who want to avoid masses of luggage we now have the perfect solution!

In the new corner RENT YOUR TENT you can find offers for renting tents and camping equipment directly on the festival area.

Currently the companies ready to rock and Mein Zelt Steht Schon are offering their services.

Festival News Written 2012-02-15 15:34:38

Hello metalheads,

This week we give you the current information about the W:O:A Mail and Parcel Office! Find out more about the innovation within this service by reading the newsletter!

Moreover there are news about the last few band announcements, a virtual panorama-tour through the W:O:Art exhibition by Jens Rusch and Alice Cooper.

Also in 2012 the Wacken Mail and Parcel Office will be on the festival ground. Read below to learn more about the extended offer for 2012:

1. Luggage shipping TO Wacken W:O:A

Simplify your trip to Wacken W:O:A 2012 by sending your luggage directly to the WOA festival area in advance. You can pick up your luggage at the Wacken Mail and Parcel Office (WACKEN CENTER) from 1 August 2012.

You can find further information regarding the handling as well as prices at the following website www.wackenpostoffice.com. Here you start the assignment and pay for the shipping. You need to assign for the luggage service prior to 24 July 2012 (due to organisational requirements). The luggage will have to be picked up by UPS prior to 27 July 2012.

The service will only be offered from the following countries (like last year): Germany, BeNeLux, Denmark, Austria, France and Sweden. The number of luggage for the service is limited to 250 pieces. So, the earlier you book, the higher is the probability that you can use this service.

2. Parcel and packaging service (including luggage service)

We offer parcel shipping and packaging service at the festival area (WACKEN CENTER). We provide worldwide and secured parcel service via UPS so that you can send for example your merchandising products and gifts home directly.

If you do not want to carry your luggage back home after the W:O:A, we also provide a luggage shipping from the festival area back to your home. We will take care of professionally wrapping and packing your belongings to ensure a secure shipping.

3. Your personal post card from W:O:A 2012

This year, you can mail your personal and customised post card from the W:O:A 2012. We take a picture from your friends and you in front of Wacken city sign and print the shoot as a post card. Mail your personal and individual greetings from W:O:A 2012.

4. Mail and stamps

This year, you can stamp your mail with a postal charges including a logo of W:O:A 2012. Bring your postcards from the „Full Metal Bag“ directly from Wacken Mail and Parcel Office and we print the postal charges including the logo of W:O:A: 2012 onto the post card. The charges for this are EUR 0.15 plus postal charges (thereof we donate EUR 0.05 to Wacken Foundation). In addition, you can get post cards in the Mail and Parcel Office.

Four additional Bands for 2012 – Megaherz, Manimals, Massacre and We Butter The Bread With Butter

Two German and two American Bands are among the lineup for Wacken Open Air 2012. Except for Massacre it’s the first gig for the bands on WOA at all.

Megaherz – With their album Götterdämmerung Megaherz had confirmed their status in the German scene “Neue Deutsche Härte”. It’s hard to imagine the scene without the Munich guys.

Manimals – The guys from Ohio celebrate reunion as well as their 30th Anniversary. They will come with their Monster Metal or Horrorcore to the WOA. They are one of the 80’s cult metal acts.

We Butter The Bread With Butter – founded in 2007 WBTBWB celebrate their own style. The 5 guys from Brandenburg established with their new interpretation of German children song’s with elements of Death Metal, Metalcore and Electro. Now they write own songs.

Massacre – One of the first Death Metal Bands is Massacre. Founded in 1984 in Florida, they will come for the second time to Wacken and will heat you up.

Festival News Written 2012-01-29 10:25:45

Hello metalheads,

After the great success of the Metal Mobile WC´s (MMWC) in 2011 we are now going to start the rental for MMWCs at W:O:A 2012!
There is a limited count of 150 Metal Mobil WCs like in the years before. So get the most important information to rent your own Mobile WC in this week´s newsletter.

Moreover there were made some new band announcements in past days. Besides others there will be Overkill, Dead by April and Aura Noir on stage at Wacken 2012.

Now available! Rent your tents and camping articles for Wacken Open Air with ready to rock!

Every festival visitor knows this situation – you are preparing for the departure to Wacken until you realize the sad truth: Too much luggage!
A big problem especially for fans travelling by bus or train which have to carry their luggage all the way by their self.
BUT what would be if you will not have to worry about the transport of festival survival stuff like tents, sleeping bags or camping chairs?

A question that is now being answered by ready to rock!

ready to rock will rent camping tents and accessories (such as camping chairs, tables, mattresses) at WOA or other open-air-festivals to you and even takes care of all the necessary assembly before your arrival.

All rented ready to rock tents at the WOA will be at the camping area B and are therefore in close proximity to the festival site.

Our specials section „Camper Park” is back online. That means you will have again the possibility to rent campers, tents and 230 V power supply for own campers. Our partner "Camper Park Wacken GbR" has increased its offer for 2012 with a few new versions of tents and other new services. So take a look…

Important: Renting of campers is exclusively lead in the name and on invoice of Camper Park Wacken GbR .

New W:O:A Wallpaper

Besides our still available 2012 Wallpapers we will release a new wallpaper with calendar design at every month. The january is available from now on as download in 8 different resolutions.

Festival News Written 2012-01-07 03:31:59

W:O:A Newsletter KW 01

Hello Metalheads,

a happy new year to all of you! The first step into the new year brings some news about the next Wacken TV Special and the new camping festival service of Ready to Rock!

Wacken: A Village loves Metal - TV Show on german broadcaster "NDR Fernsehen"

Wacken - A Village loves Metal: A hayfield Heavy-Metal–Spectacle

Once a year the international metal - family is going on a pilgrimage to Wacken. 75.000 fans from all over the world are celebrating an inimitable metal party! On German Television "NDR Fernsehen" you will see all about the never ending nights in Wacken. Concerts, the W:O:A feeling, stars and backstagestories - 90 minutes full of Metal.
Motörhead and Apocalytica met there colleagues of Blind Guardian or Heaven Shall Burn. Don´t miss the highlights of the biggest Heavy Metal Party in the World.

Sunday, 08th of January 2012, 11:00 pm until 12:30 am on "NDR Fernsehen"
The Livestream will be available at www.ndr.de/wacken

Now available! Rent your tents and camping articles for Wacken Open Air with ready to rock!

Every festival visitor knows this situation – you are preparing for the departure to Wacken until you realize the sad truth: Too much luggage!
A big problem especially for fans travelling by bus or train which have to carry their luggage all the way by their self.
BUT what would be if you will not have to worry about the transport of festival survival stuff like tents, sleeping bags or camping chairs?

A question that is now being answered by ready to rock!

ready to rock will rent camping tents and accessories (such as camping chairs, tables, mattresses) at WOA or other open-air-festivals to you and even takes care of all the necessary assembly before your arrival.

All rented ready to rock tents at the WOA will be at the camping area B and are therefore in close proximity to the festival site.

For the seventh time in a row the 23rd W:O:A ( take place from 2nd to 4th of August 2011 ) is SOLD OUT - and never before in such a short time. Again 75.000 tickets were sold!

A huge part of the billing is already announced including several special and exclusive shows as well as high-class acts. As every year we have made every effort to provide a terrific billing! And the announcements don´t stop. Via our online advent calendar at least one band will be announced every day during December.

As we have promised a few days ago we will announce the next bands for Wacken 2012 during november – And of course this is a promise we will keep!
In the night from Wednesday to Thursday at 00.01 am we announce the next big act! During the following days some amazing announcements will follow. And when December arrives we will unleash the ultimate storm of band announcements via our online advent calendar!

Stay tuned! The next days are getting hot!

As we have told you in our news from the 3rd of November we are expecting the sold out for the middle of December.
So hurry up and order your W:O:A 3-Day-All-In Festival Ticket in time – only at the official W:O:A ticketshop Metaltix][link_text:Metaltix]#

Yours
W:O:A team

Festivalnytt Written 2011-11-03 04:17:49

W:O:A Newsletter KW 44

Hello metalheads,

Big theme this week is the cooperation of label Nuclear Blast with the WOA “Metal Battle”. How the world wide biggest independent Heavy Metal-label is going to support “Metal Battle” you can find out by reading on.

More great topics are the GreenEvents Conference 2011 and the Voting for the European Festival Awards.

The “Metal Battle” which was started in 2004 by the founders of the world’s biggest heavy metal festival – the Wacken:Open:Air - as a newcomer contest to support up-and-coming bands from all over the world will go into its ninth round in 2012 – with Nuclear Blast Records and Wacken Open Air joining in!

What initially started out as a small contest with six German bands and five bands from other countries grew and grew over the years, so that there was a total of 29 international newcomer bands performing during the festival in 2011 and striving for the first place after having won the preliminary decisions in their respective countries. In the past, the first prize was a record deal with Wacken Records. For 2012, Nuclear Blast and Wacken Open Air have announced their participation, meaning that the winning band of “Metal Battle” 2012 will win no less than a record deal with Nuclear Blast - the biggest independent heavy metal label worldwide!

A&R manager Andy Siry states: “We’re looking forward to this cooperation with the W:O:A ´Metal Battle´ and Wacken Open Air. Supporting young talents means paving the way for a diverse and prosperous international heavy metal scene in the future. Plus it’s always great to see how many musical rough diamonds are out there, who deserve much more attention than they currently receive.”

All is set for the next exciting newcomer hunt! More information to follow in good time.

Sustainability and environmental protection are important themes the promoters of Wacken Open Air are dealing with long ago.
Projects as “Viva Con Aqua” or “Metal for Nature” became a constant part in the festival.

For this reason we will attend the GreenEvents Conference 2011 which takes place in Bonn at the 2nd and 3rd of November.
The conference aims are giving sustainability and environmental protection appropriate space within the events and live music industry, raise consciousness, exchange knowledge and build networks.

It´s time again – The European Festival Awards are calling for your votes and as in the year before Wacken is nominated in the category “Best Major Festival”.
Since Monday fans from all over Europe have the possibility to vote for their favorite festivals, anthems, headline performances, line-ups as well as best newcomer acts.

There is also the chance to win an amazing price – Your perfect festival summer!
2 free tickets for ALL winning festivals are raffled amongst all participants.
Of course we need as many votes as possible to win this year! That´s why we count on!
We want to reach the title “Best European Major Festival” with the votes from THE BEST FANS IN THE WORLD – YOUR VOTES!!!

Thanks for your Support Metalheadz!

Metal-Battle UK – Saturnian won the finals

During the bloodstock festival in the UK the band Saturnian won the “Metal 2 The Masses” contest and is now confirmed as UK candidate for the next edition of the Metal-Battle.
As every year the finals will take place at Wacken and Saturnian are the first Metal-Battle band that is confirmed for the Wacken Open Air 2012!

Festival News Written 2011-10-27 12:55:58

Hey Metalheads,

Halloween is drawing closer! On this occasion we have sended out this special newsletter so that every single one of you can recognize this special offer at our Full:Metal:Shop.
Second issue is the next edition of the European Festival Awards! Once again we are nominated in the category "Best European Major Festival". So we need your Votes to win!

Detailed info about both topics can be read in the following newsletter!

Year after year it´s time again for the pumpkin head to return!
A few years ago this old custom swept over the pond and became also in Germany a day for celebrating.
Halloween is near and the prices of the Full:Metal:Shop are spiraling downwards!
On each order on Monday the 31st of October2011 between 00:00 h – 24.00 h you will get 6,66% discount by entering the following voucher code!
So take your chance as long as this offer continues!

Important: This is a one day action only! The minimum order amounts 15€
The voucher code is only valid on the 31st of October 2011 and only for online Orders!

Have fun while shopping!

yours
W:O:A team

European Festival Awards – Wacken needs your Vote!

It´s time again – The European Festival Awards are calling for your votes and as in the year before Wacken is nominated in the category “Best Major Festival”.
Since Monday fans from all over Europe have the possibility to vote for their favorite festivals, anthems, headline performances, line-ups as well as best newcomer acts.

There is also the chance to win an amazing price – Your perfect festival summer!
2 free tickets for ALL winning festivals are raffled amongst all participants.
Of course we need as many votes as possible to win this year! That´s why we count on!
We want to reach the title “Best European Major Festival” with the votes from THE BEST FANS IN THE WORLD – YOUR VOTES!!!

This week we again had collected all important news about Wacken Open Air Festival.

After the successful start of the worldwide first festival panorama last year we now present you the 2011 edition.
With it you´ll have the possibility to gain some special insights of the festival.
Find out more about the festival site, the band performances as well as the metal fans and have look at W:O:A Panorama 2011.

Furthermore there are news about how W:O:A grows up in 2 minutes, the Full Metal Poker, your best W:O:A experience at wackentube.com and many more.

In 2010 the world´s first festival panorama had started successfully!
Now we want to present the W:O:A Panorama 2011 which again gives you the possibility to experience the Wacken Festival in a 360 degrees view.

Within the edition of 2011 there are several panoramas available. Have a look at the festival site, Wacken Plaza or band performances.
An interactive map and the hotspots help you changing between the different festival areas.
The instructions help you in using the panorama.

During the next weeks we will upgrade the W:O:A Panorama 2011 with further panoramas and festival videos.
Moreover we will also include the 2010 edition in this year´s Panorama!

One week of Wacken in 2 Minutes

Good news for all of you who don´t want to spend a whole week with observing the progress of the festival via webcam.
For the first time the Wacken Open Air can be watched in time lapse on WackenTube. The happenings of a whole week Wacken including the construction and festival days can now be watched in a 2 minute version. The footage was filmed by some of our numerous cams on the Wacken Center and Infield and converted into a nice movie clip.

Have fun!

Wacken Memories

Last week we had released the 2011 edition of the Wacken Memories Photobook. This book can be filled with your fotos according to your personal wishes.
Known from the last year the photo book editor, which was developed in co-operation with our partner Jenomics returns in a revised version.
With this editor you have the possibility to put your festival memories & pictures within a special designed photo book – the perfect gift idea!

Full:Metal:Army – started at W:O:A 2011

The 22nd Wacken Open Air is over and also the Full Metal Army has started ably.
At this year´s festival the official fanclub of Wacken Open Air starts with a booth at Wacken infield.
Within the first day we had received round about 100 declarations of application. After the festival days they had grown to more than 240.

This was a great start for the Full:Metal:Army!
Until the end of the year you can join the F:M:A for free. During this period you can check out the services and structures of the F:M:A.

More information about the fanclub, the services and all plans which should be realized until the end of the year you can find at our homepage www.full-metal-army.com.

Become a part of the F:M:A community and join the taster membership now!
Here you´ll find the declaration of application.

At the page wackentube.com you can share your favorite W:O:A moments with metalheads all over the world.

Just upload your best W:O:A video or picture to the category “22 years W:O:A”!

Have a look at the page wackentube.com and find the newest videos and pictures there.

Festival News Written 2011-08-03 22:33:17

Wacken Open Air Newsletter

The bumper to bumper traffic has arrived and the festival has just begun. The sun is shining and the weather forecast for the next day’s looks very good. Sadly not every metalhead has become an owner of a ticket so this newsletter is dedicated to all the people who have to stay at home. With this newsletter we want to refer on our wide range of live broadcasting and streaming of our broadcasting partners ZDFkultur and NDR.

ZDFkultur – Live broadcasting

For all the people who have to stay at home this year we have good news – Also in TV there will be the full charge of Wacken for your eyes and ears!
On Saturday the 6th of August german TV broadcaster ZDFkultur will begin with the live broadcasting – 4 hours of footage of the highlights of Saturday. From 8pm you can watch Avantasia, Blind Guardian (20.55 H), Apocalyptica (21:45H), Airbourne (22:45 H) and Motörhead ond ZDFkultur and as live stream at www.zdfkultur.de. The moderators Silke Super and Jo Schück will present the concerts on the ground. The broadcasting will shown again at the night of Sunday from 04:45 H as well as on Sunday at 3pm.

But that´s not enough! In the following week (from Monday 8th of August to Friday 12th of August) there will be 5 one hour lasting special shows. Each show will be broadcasted on 7pm. The list of bands reads as follows:
Monday – Helloween
Tuesday – Heaven Shall Burn
Wednesday – Subway to Sally
Thursday – Children of Bodom
Friday - Motörhead

The one hour lasting specials will each be replayed at the following night on 01:40 am and on the next morning at 08:00 pm

As you can see there will be a whole week of Wacken also after the festival on ZDFkultur

NDR Livestream and Giga Panorama

Due to our cooperation with NDR there is a live stream directly from the festival for free this year. For the first time ever there is also a giga panorama where you can immortalize yourself. How that works you will find out now:

W:O:A live streams on NDR.DE
If you belong to those who could not get hold of a ticket this year we have a good message for you: There will be a live stream arranged by NDR.DE. So you can watch the performance of the most important bands via internet. You can find all information about this topic on www.ndr.de/wacken.

NDR and the W:O:A Giga-Panorama
Everyone who already has been standing in the first row during a concert of his/ her favorite band before knows it: After the show the first photos of the crowd are shown and you promptly start searching for yourself! Unfortunately the photos are often too small and blurred so that you cannot identify much in the crowd. The NDR attends to this problem now – namely with the giga panorama! During the scene-changing intermission between Bülent Cheylan and Frei.Wild the panorama which catches the crowd in a large scale format is constructed and offers you the possibility to tag yourself and to share on Facebook or Studivz.

Only 7 days left until the Wacken Open Air 2011 begins. The whole Crew is in big action and the Stage grows and grows, so the Festival-Area takes figure. Exactly at the point of building up the Stages the Sun comes out of hiding and the weather forecast makes us feel very hopeful for the next 14 Days!

In this Newsletter you’ll get a little surprise for all the Smartphone-Junkies out there. And because of the short time until the Festival begins we´ll grant you some general Information about the W:O:A!

The WACKEN OPEN AIR team welcomes you and looks forward to the best week of the year with the best fans in the world!

Next week you’ll get the latest news about the Traffic, shorts and all the important news you need to know for your travel and your destination.

In company with the partner junaio and PETER PAUL AND MARY W:O:A will offer you as the first festival worldwide its own Virtual Guide App – of course free of charge!

W:O:A Running Order

The Running-Order for those four unforgettable days full of good music is done and there are as usual many Mega-Acts like Ozzy Osbourne, Triptykon, Apocalyptica, Judas Priest, Children of Bodom, Motörhead and so on. Please follow this LINK to get the whole Running Order.

Link & Zelda rock Wacken

Two special guests have announced their arrival at this year’s W:O:A: The adventurous princess Zelda and her brave hero Link.
In Grave Digger’s festival anthem „Wacken will never die” it says „No time to wait, get out on the road / And never give up.“ It sounds just like an order to start a fantastic journey through Hyrule with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D.
The heroes Link and Zelda have geared themselves up with hair flowing, and are ready to take their position as your chaperon in Wacken. They invite you to join them for their new action adventure at the Wacken Plaza. With the Nintendo 3DS amended version of one of the most acclaimed video games of all times, Zelda fans get to experience Hyrule for the first time in 3 D.
While the music takes center stage on the festival floors, Nintendo presents a real eye-candy inside their tent at the Wacken Plaza. One can test thoroughly The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. Besides that, promotion teams are on the grounds, inviting you to dive into the fantasy empire of Hyrule. Nintendo takes you through a magical journey across time, through mystical landscapes and temples, dark dungeons and invites you to show the villain Ganondorf who the real master is.
The very best: One can see 3D pictures just like that without any special 3D glasses! With The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D one understands for the very first time, what it means “to immerge into gameplay”.
For all those that feel the need to relax in between, the Nintendo tent offers a variety of options, like renting a Nintendo 3DS and choosing one of many 3D games.

Nintendo looks forward to seeing you!

The Electric Hotel

Every festival visitor knows the problem: You are on a festival, lost your friends, the mobile phone is on low battery and no electric socket in sight – that´s annoying!
But now we have a solution for this problem situated on the Wacken Plaza besides the safety locker truck – It´s name: “The Electric Hotel”

Electric What?
Behind the curtain of this strange sounding name hides a construction of inventive spirit. THE ELECTRIC HOTEL is an airstream-trailer which was rebuilt into a mobile power plant for charging mobile devices. The power from this trailer is absolutely clean and created from renewable energy sources like wind, kinetics and photovoltaic cells.

For a little fee of 2€ small electric devices like f.e. mobile-/Iphones, cameras can be delivered for charging. 0,50€ of this fee will be donated for a good cause to the Wacken Foundation. The reception inside of the trailer will hand out sheets for receiving and collecting and lock your phone or other device into the locker matrix for charging. You certainly won´t have to pay for charging if you get on one of the bikes and pedal by yourself.
On the outside of the trailer there will be also sockets, giving you the possibility to charge your mobile device by yourself.

Besides providing energy, the goal of the electric hotel is to provide awareness for the responsible dealing with resources.
So take a look and try it!

Police Co-Operation

Even in this year we need your support to prevent thefts. In cooperation with the local police we put together the most important news on a flyer. Furthermore this year you’ll get an belt-bag in your Full:Metal:Bag which prevents thefts. Please read the flyer carefully or even print it out.

The W:O:A even got it’s publicity because of the best atmosphere on the camping-ground in the world. This is just because there are less prohibitions than on other festivals. So please keep in mind, that we can only leave it like that if everyone follow the rules for the camping-ground, so even in the future we will never stop this Wacken-Feeling.

Festival alphabet

Furthermore please EVERYONE read our Festival Alphabet where you will get to know every important information about behavior, Rules, opening hours, locations and much more.

Journey to W:O:A

The whole W:O:A Team is already very glad to see you again in the Holy Land Of Wacken. Anyhow we wish you to reach your destination stress-free without any kind of trouble, so please follow the instructions of our security-personal.

Jägermeister Hochsitz at W:O:A 2011

Ready for lift-off:

The third year in a row Jägermeister Hochsitz is ready for the festival summer 2011.
Jägermeister Hocksitz is the on-air-bar with an exclusive view of the top acts on W:O:A Festival!

How to get one seat in it you´ll get informed locally.

Festival News Written 2011-07-27 22:03:20

W:O:A 2011
Registration for the METAL MOBILE WC

After the amazingly good development in 2010, we again are starting the unique rental service for the METAL MOBILE WCs.
In 2010 all 150 WCs where booked up within 4 hours! So better buck up in 2011!

METAL MOBILE WC

150 limited Metal Mobile WCs will again be available for you this year.

This year every confirmation of each MMWC-registration will be given with a reservation number to assure the smooth going of the distribution of the METAL MOBILE WCs.

The rental price for a METAL MOBILE WC is 120Euros and to be paid cash directly to the service driver on delivery. Please talk to your service driver for an intermediate cleaning. The fee for each intermediate cleaning will be 25Euros which also has to be paid immediately in cash to the service driver.

The service will be on route at the campsite every day from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm.

An intermediate cleaning will only be possible if the METAL MOBILE WC is positioned max 5meter away from the roadside. The service driver will advise you on the possibility of an intermediate cleaning when delivering your METAL MOBILE WC. Your right to get an intermediate cleaning will be dispensed with the METAL MOBILE WC being positioned to far away from the roadside. The service driver will make a note about this when delivering the METAL MOBILE WC to avoid further disagreements.

A padlock, if required, can be bought from the service driver for 3Euros. Returning the padlock is not possible.
A change of the fixed location of the METAL MOBILE WC needs to be approved by the service driver.

Delivery of the METAL MOBILE WC:

When you’ve reached your final camping location and called the hotline by giving them your name and reservation number, please tell them approximately your location (e.g. by referring to a special feature on Campsite P) and the delivery will be activated.

The METAL MOBILE WC will only be delivered after previous registration via phone. You or a representative of yours has to be at your camping location long enough to get the METAL MOBILE WC positioned accordingly. Afterwards you are asked to sign for the delivery.

The deliveries will start at Wednesday, 03.08.2011 from 8:00 am on.

The cars with the METAL MOBILE WCs are clearly marked with a banner saying “Metal Mobil WC”.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Each reservation can only ask for one METAL MOBILE WC.
It is absolutely essential that we get one, best case two mobile numbers where you will be available at during W:O:A.

Festival News Written 2011-07-22 00:53:41

Wacken Virtual Guide APP for Iphone and android

The first out of 2 Wacken Apps for the festival 2011 is released

W:O:A is proud to present you another world’s first.
In company with the partner junaio and PETER PAUL AND MARY, W:O:A will offer you as the first metal festival worldwide its own Virtual Guide App free of charge. The App is based on the new Augmented Reality technique. It is a channel on its own of the junaio Augmented Reality Browser.

What is it?
Well, your Smartphone acts as some kind of glasses. For that purpose it makes use of the camera and the GPS system. So, if you are on the festival site you can hold your camera in every direction and then the App shows you in a picture all points of interest (POI) including the corresponding information. Furthermore the App identifies and displays the exact distance from your present whereabouts. The POI’s are peppered with real-time information as e.g. seasons of the bands. So, the visitor is always on the current status.

How does it work?
In the particular App Store the Augmented Reality App of „junaio“ can be downloaded for free. If the App is installed you can choose the Wacken Virtual Guide Channel and go off. Furthermore the Virtual Guide can be directly found as Featured Pick from the welcome page of Junaio App during the whole festival.
Explore the W:O:A without long searching. With Augmented Reality App there is no problem anymore!

Just a few weeks left until the Wacken Open Air Festival 2011 starts.
The preparations are in full swing and we want to inform you currently about all news and updates.

This week we present two mobile applications which informs you about all wirth knowing about W:O:A 2011.
The applications help you looking over the festival site and even remind you about the shows of your favorite bands.

Moreover there are updates of the Running Order, the Festival ABC and the Festival site plans.
Two great raffles will also start this week!

Your festival app for Wacken Open Air. All news around the festival always up-to-date on your iPhone or Android.
Are you looking forward to always have your running order with you on your mobile phone? There is no problem at all with the W:O:A Mobile App. Furthermore you can arrange your individual running order and you are also reminded of the performance 15 minutes earlier by a push message.
Via the special animated Google Map you know where what is taking place any time and how you can get from A to B the fastest. (Attention! With the coming update you can enter your position on the map. That way you will find back to your tent any time and moreover you can communicate to your friends where you are. That means you don’t waste time searching your friends via statements as e.g.: „My tent is to the left of the flag pole with the skull flag!“)
The obligatory pocket lamp must be included of course and when you are at a loss the festival ABC, the opening hours and the advices of further offers within the information range will help you.
Your multi tool for a festival time without stress. All information always ready to hand, your W:O:A Mobile App!

Virtual Guide App

W:O:A is the first Festival worldwide that offers augmented reality with the Virtual Guide App!
Soon you´ll find more information about it online!

So look forward to the worldwide first Virtual Guide App and have a look at www.wacken.com!

New W:O:A updates

Final W:O:A Running Order 2011 online

After some updates we published the final W:O:A Running Order online!

W:O:A maps 2011

There are new updates of the campground and the festival area maps.
Have a look on them online or download them as pdf!

Festival ABC

The Festival ABC updates are online now.
Have a look on it at www.wacken.com.

FREI.WILD – Confirmed as last Act for this year´s Wacken Open Air

South Tirol´s most successful “Deutsch-Rock” band Frei.Wild has been confirmed as last official act for this year´s Wacken Open Air. Thereby the last mysterious “tba” slot at the festival running order has been disappeared.
FREI.WILD will take over a headliner position on the Blackstage, one of the two big main stages. Fitting to their 10th anniversary the band will arrange a memorable gig at this year´s Wacken Open Air.

Just a few weeks ago, on occasion to their 10th Anniversary the band managed to place a unique coup with the re-release of their chart entry #2 success record: The album again climbed the top of the charts by hitting place 4 of the Media Control Charts and entered two top-5 chart entries within 6 months. Meanwhile the band seeks to crack a download record:

As some kind of “Thank You” as well as extraordinary give away the band grants their audience something really special. FREI.WILD sheds a complete download single for free!
This includes 2 brand new songs in good old sound manner called “Engel Der Verdammten” and “Nur Arschlöcher Um Mich Herum”.

The whole campaign will only start if the following conditions are solved: To get the 2 new songs the Frei.Wild fans have to catapult the video “Weil Du Mich Verarscht Hast” into the elite class of YouTube videos and that means the video has to be watched more than 1 Million times. Only after this you can get the 2 new songs for free.

A quest that has to be solved within only six weeks. Only six weeks time to place one million clicks.
A mission that can only be accomplished through real rock n´ roll feeling. The fan base has given proof for more than a single time that they are able to do this:
Sold out tours, growing concert halls, amazing record sales and last but not least the awesome support of their fan base marks the unique success-story of the band from South Tirol.

Deadline of this campaign is the middle of August which means a few days after their show at Wacken.

Great WOA Zelda raffle - powered by Nintendo

Anybody who has owned one of Nintendo’s gaming consoles over the past decades, has heard of him – the spike eared hero that keeps on saving the princess over and over again over the past years.
YES! You got it right, we are talking about ZELDA! As you have most likely noticed, Nintendo will be on site with its own stand during this years Wacken Open Air.
Nintendo will present software novelties such as the new Nintendo 3DS to the metal audience. Supported by Nintendo, we will also raffle a fantastic price!

The winner will get one of the brand new Nintendo 3DS including ZELDA 3D “Ocarina of Time” – Powered by Nintendo

The W:O:A team wishes you good luck!

Festival News Written 2011-07-10 23:56:21

Hello metalheads,

As in past years we want to call on you to help protecting the festival side.
With Metal4Natur we present a project saving the festival ground from trash.
For more information about Metal4Nature read on!

Moreover we have collected the newest W:O:A themes for you.
Find out more about the Bullhead City Wrestling, W:O:A´s new sponsor Relentless and “ready to Rock” which introduces itself.
This week there are great lotteries to win in our newsletter…

Under the slogan “Metal 4 Nature” we want to realize the topics waste avoidance and waste disposal together with you, to make sure, that the future WOAs can still take place on juicy, green fields.

We are appealing to your environmental awareness and want to motivate you to collect your waste on the festival site and to try to keep your waste volume as low as possible. Do it out of respect for the environment!
We need your support to achieve these goals!
Metal 4 Nature – I took my trash – just left my footprint & spirit!
Try to avoid waste as much as possible! Use reusable packages whenever possible and always keep in mind that the WOA is taking place at an agricultural area!

Metal 4 Nature – “Safe your holy land!“

Your own personal “no worries” package by "ready to rock"!

No mind to carry around your tent? Your airmattress is to big? You do not want to waste your time setting up your tent and all the accessoiries; you rather simply want to arrive and really start your party?

If that sounds like you, we've got the right package-deal for carefree partying for you. Leave your tent, the camping chairs and that used-up airbed at home and trust the guys and girls from "ready to rock" - they have all a festival visitors heart needs. They set up your tent and camping equipment and will be there for you during the whole festival.

To book this great service for an unforgettable festival with no hassle, just go to:

www.ready-to-rock.de and make a reservation today for your individual party package. You have already wasted your last cents for the WOA ticket? No problem! Together with “ready to rock” we raffle off 3 festival "no wories" package deals (FNWPD) for 2 people. A single package is one 2-person-tent, one compact led latern, two camping chairs, one comfortable & innovative 2-person-Sleep'in Bed and one big water carrier.

To participate in this RAFFLE, just send an email with the subject „ready to rock @wacken“ and a good explanation why you deserve be the winner of the FNWPD to "verlosung@wacken.com" und there you go - the 3 best explanations win the raffle. Emails must be in by July 11th, 2011.

Good luck!!

W:O:A Bullhead City Wrestling

As in past years the Bullhead City Tent holds lots of attractions.

Again in 2011 professional Wrestlers from all over the world will travel to the high north of Germany to fight within the ambient of the W:O:A atmosphere .

Wrestling presenter Martin "The Crusher" Ruder has some words dedicated for you:

"Hello Metal Maniacs and Wrestling Fans !!!

It´s time again and it is the third year now that I can announce an awesome card of wrestlers from all over the world. Some of the biggest names that dominate this great sport are coming, I can only say the ground will be shaking when COLUSSUS or THUNDER will enter the ring. For the first time these wrestling superstars are joining the BULLHEAD CITY WRETLING roster. From show to show and year to year the crowd is growing at the Bullhead Wrestling shows.
Most of the the Wrestlers are Metalheads themselves, that and the great, noisy atmosphere you fans are creating, make the Wrestlers work double hard or even more. Come by and check it out !
We are looking forward to welcome
you to the very own and special world of the Bullhead City Tent.

cheers,
the Crusher"

W:O:A Metal Chorus & Drummer 2011

During the next weeks the two specials W:O:A Metal Chorus and W:O:A Drummer 2011 finished.
So hury up to upload your videos at wackentube.com!

The W:O:A Metal Chorus ends on the 15th of July. Your video for W:O:A Drummer 2011 you can upload till the 20th of July.

We wish you good luck!

Festival News Written 2011-06-30 12:11:18

Hello metalheads,

this week there are new information about the video contest W:O:A Metal Chorus.
Becoming attentive about this special the singer and songwriter of the Wacken anthem Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger) wants to invite the five winners to perform live with him on stage in Wacken!
For more information about this unique special read on!

Moreover we have collected the newest W:O:A themes for you.
Find out more about the W:O:A Running Order, the W:O:A Festival Plans and new band confirmations.

Relentless Energy Drink will raffle 5 x 2 festival tickets via the next newsletter. Tickets will include accommodation at the Relentless camping site, close to the festival ground. Means: Sleeping in RELENTLESS double tents and further extras to energize your festival experience.
Watch out for details in the next Wacken newsletter!

Winners of W:O:A Metal Chorus will perform live with Chris Boltendahl of Grave Digger at W:O:A

Last week the W:O:A Metal Chorus, a contest for all the creative Metalheads, started!

At the W:O:A Metal Chorus you can record an own performance of this year’s Wacken hymn „Wacken Will Never Die“ and upload the video on Wackentube.

Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger) became aware of our campaign and asks the 5 winners to perform the Wacken hymn together with himself and Skyline live at W:O:A!!!
Consequently the winners of the W:O:A Metal Chorus will not perform at the Metal karaoke as planned, but they will sing the refrain of the Wacken hymn together with Chris Boltendahl during the opening show on Thursday on the Black Stage!

An independent jury will judge the 5 fanciest, funniest and most creative videos of the participants. You can still engage in the W:O:A Metal Chorus until the 15th of July 2011.

Important: One condition for participation is the ownership of a valid festival ticket!

As always there are current information and updates published in the newsletter! Since Today the W:O:A festival ABC is online which gives you all information about the Wacken Open Air Festival.
For more info read on!

Furthermore we can present you the first finalists for Metal Battle 2011.
And moreover the W:O:A band billing is not complete yet. Recently we announced a handful more bands performing at W:O:A 2011 !

The Festival ABC answers most of your questions concerning the Wacken Open Air Festival.
There you´ll find information about things like travel or camping, but also information about renovations in 2011.

From now on the Festival ABC is online!!
Have a look at it and don´t pass the renewals in 2011.

If there are further questions who can´t be answered by the Festival ABC you can send an email to headquarter@ics-woa.de!

Metal Battle 2011 – first finalists

Today new feed for your ears is coming from the Metal-Battle camp. By now almost half of the 30 participating countries have chosen their national finalist for the Metal Battle which will also introduce this year´s Wacken Open Air on Wednesday. These finalists will battle for fame and honor as well as for several endorsement articles, such as Eden, Marshall, Washburn and Woodbrass and a record deal as first prize.

The finalist will now be added to the Billing/Bands section. We can cater for all tastes so take a look! Listen to your favorits and support them as best as you can at the international finals of the METAL-BATTLE 2011!

Also this year the W:O:A will be accompanied into battle by an appropriate hymn. Following Doro in 2009 and U.D.O in 2010 now Grave Digger will compose oneself to present the Wacken Open Air with their hymn “Wacken Will Never Die”. Vocalist Chris Boltendahl and his comrades follow in the footsteps of their two ancestors without any trouble and present another powerful hymn which knows how to transport the spirit of Wacken to their fans.

This piece of music can be pre-listened at the facebook and MySpace-Seite of W:O:A. There you can also listen to “We are the Metalheads” (Doro) and “Heavy Metal W:O:A” (U.D.O.)

The purchasable single will be available during the upcoming festival and in stores after the end of W:O:A 2011

As in the last year the Wacken Foundation will get all the receipts of the single.

Here are the lyrics of the song:

WACKEN WILL NEVER DIE
1. Strophe :

We´re standing in the first row
Raising our fist
Sreaming at our idols
Coming out of the mist

Like a thunder from the sky
Rolling on the stage
Metal Monsters are unleashed
Fighting side by side)

Bridge :

For Metal we live
For Metal we`ll die
We are riding the sky
Til the morning light

Chorus :

ALL FOR ONE
AND ALL FOR METAL
WACKEN WILL NEVER DIE

WE ROCK UNTIL THE DAWN
WITH ENDLESS POWER
WACKEN WILL NEVER DIE
WACKEN WILL NEVER DIE

2. Strophe

No time to wait, get out on the road
And never give up
Time to burn, time to learn
Every second we yearn

Relentless Energy on board with the world’s biggest metal festival
Wacken, northern Germany – probably not the kind of place you’d expect to find the world’s largest metal gathering. But 21 years since its inception, the Wacken Open Air Festival remains an annual fixture in this small, sleepy town. Taking place from 4 - 6 August 2011, it's set to be another huge occasion.

The big guns come out
Headliners include the mighty Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Motörhead, Avantasia, Children of Bodom, Suicidal Tendencies, Airbourne and Mayhem – enough to justify the ticket price alone. There are also various weird and wonderful curios worth checking out, like the annual opening show from the Wacken Firefighters. As their name would suggest, they’re fire-fighters who just happen to love metal and can thrash out a song or two.

Breaking new talent
On top of the established talent, aspiring metal acts have the chance to perform alongside their heroes thanks to the Wacken Open Air Metal Masters online video competition. This year Relentless Energy are on board to help spread the word and give this opportunity-of-a-lifetime contest their full backing. Bands that think they can cut it live can upload a video of themselves in action to the WackenTube website (check the link below). Users then vote on their favourites. The winners get a slot on the Wacken Wet Stage – also known as Headbanger’s Ballroom.
The festival is already sold out, but the Relentless Energy community have a chance to win a trip to this immense metal nirvana – keep your eyes peeled to the site and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out how around the beginning of June.

Kjellan Written 2011-05-01 08:20:20

Waaaköööööön!!

Festival News Written 2011-04-19 12:31:53

Hello metalheads,

This weeks newsletter gives you the most important information about the Wacken Open Air Festival 2011.
Find out about the preparations of the Festival ABC and W:O:A Running Order.

The Festival ABC is ready to be released soon. For the W:O:A Running Ordner we have to be patient untill Easter.

Moreover there are the newest band conformations and the greatest stuff at our online shop.

Most of you are already waiting for updates about the W:O:A Running Order and Festival ABC.
The preparations of both soon will be done!

If you want to know which band will plays on which stage you have to check out the running order.
Already month before the Festival starts you there will find enough information to creat your own plan for the Wacken Open Air Festival.
With it you can be sure not to miss one of your favorites Bands!

The Festival ABC gives answers to most of your questions around the festival.
There you´ll find information about things like travel or camping, but also information about renovations in 2011.
And if there are further questions who arn´t answered by the Festival ABC you can write an email or make a call!

Our former team member and first security from the founding days of Wacken Open Air, Peter Brügmann, has died a short time ago.
We are mourning for our old companion and wish strength for family and friends.

R.I.P.

Obituary - Volker Vette

Not long ago the head of W:O:A Firefighters, Volker Vette died. Over years he made the Firefighters to what they are today - a cult act of the Wacken Open Air.

We wish all strenght strength for his family and friends.

R.I.P

Devil Driver have to cancel W:O:A performance

Bad news today. Devil Driver had to cancel their W:O:A 2011 appearance because they are going to tour the US during that time.

W:O:A Metal Masters – use your chance and join it

As already related in last weeks the W:O:A Metal Master is in full swing.
The Metal Masters in a video online voting for young metal bands which can compete for a slot at Wacken Open Air 2011.
On www.wackentube.com all user can decide about the winning video in the period from the 2nd of March till the 7th of June.

Still to the 7th of June you´ll get the possibility to upload your video on www.wackentube.com to join the W:O:A Metal Masters!

But also the following is in demand.
You are voting for the band which achievs the win and hits the road for Wacken Open Air. Don´t miss taking the vote for your favorite band at W:O:A MEtal Masters 2011!!